ways and social security, but if you can find it, go for it. ofial security is an issue are we going to bring the and it isine in line one of the government's easiest , raise the capve on the payroll tax to bring in more money, and the reason notle -- actually, it does come much in terms of when the first said this is the place people go to talk about cuts. i do not remember social security cuts. when people talk of long-term issues for the federal budget, you cannot ignore it because it is 22% of the federal budget now. one of the few programs that is growing faster than the economy, so you cannot ignore it. even if you don't look at it as a budgetary situation, social security is a major shortfall in and of itself. it is taking in less through payroll taxes than we are paying and benefits now and have been since 2012. that gap will grow bigger and bigger overtime. that has to be filled in by other federal revenues. host: a few more minutes with robert bixby. you can get more information by logging onto the concord coalition website and follow

number of course it's not from social security and you turn over that social security number and that identity thief is going to get credit in your name file an income tax return in your name you never provide that social security number to anyone unless they really need it and it's legit now i heard on the radio there's a new service that's going to help someone from putting a lien on your home based on information about the title of your home that they can get from city hall is this another thing to be on the lookout for and what can we do. you know there are a lot of scams out there in the involving the various registries of deeds in which you can get someone to check on your title for you or to get you some certified title and they're all scams you don't need any of this so you can do this on your own you can check on this and there's nothing that's going to prevent an illegal lien and what they're doing you can do for free gotcha now if you're scoring at home or up to number five steve wiseman's scam alert six pack and it's fallout from that aqua fax hack a while back right steve

it protects those on social security. it reduces burdens on families and puts greater focus on the needs of social security families giving americans more of a say in selecting the payee of their choice. more important ensuring they have a payee they can trust. though our committee did not mark up this bill, we held multiple subcommittee hearings on this issue and meetings among members on both sides of the aisle. we also heard from stakeholders about the challenges they face. this bill is a long time coming. it's going to make important, much-needed changes to the representative payee program. to further solidify the committee's understanding and our legislative intent, i am sending the acting commissioner of social security a letter. this letter transmits a technical explanation of the bill. we have asked the acting commissioner to make that letter and technical explanation available on the agency's website. and i ask unanimous consent to insert this letter into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr

rather than pay it back, they want to cut social security so moneyon't have to the they owe social security. they don't want to pay it back. that's why they want to cut social security. >> let's pick up this entitlement reform question. if they have a budget year deal in place, one of the reports said they can't pass it. they decided not to pass it. that they can do entitlement reform. >> it is important to clarify. the budget deal that was passed was a bipartisan setting up for spending bills. the white house proposal and republican budgets wouldn't actually have any effect except for setting up for the special budget tool that would allow for entitlement reform to go through without the filibuster, also how we saw the tax bill passed, and the attempt to repeal obama care. it is whether republicans will pass their joint resolution to do title reform in 2018. from what i have heard, the answer is no, which is something democrats say is a relief. they were concerned about potential cuts to medicaid, perhaps medicare, food stamps, social security and medicare were not on the table. is not loo

social security and medicare were not so much on the table for this. president trump said from the campaign that he is not looking to cut from beneficiaries. there are ways that republicans are looking to do either provider cuts or other reforms to medicare and social security. it is difficult to do because these are mandatory programs and would require a separate bill and something like a reconciliation bill. you cannot just do this in the regular appropriations process. that's one of the biggest things that republicans are worried about because they cannot actually tackle the growing share of mandatory spending through the already difficult appropriations process. host: in alexandria, virginia, independent. caller: thank you for taking my phone call. i'm just curious about something i heard on another network this morning about nascar being mentioned in this bill. it is just kind of ludicrous that nascar, a multimillion owned byrporation opene private corporation, is mentioned on capitol hill in a bill with a shutdown. it's ironic that one of the maj

that's about $200 billion contributed to social security by undocumented immigrants into the social security that's paying for older americans today. so if you assume increases in enforcement, as you have done in your budget, have you accounted for the decreases to the economy and to the social security fund if that were to pass? chairman womack: the gentleman has to take that for the record. the gentleman from ohio, mr. ren initiativey. >> i thank you for being here. while i may not agree with every policy decision made on the budget, i am encouraged that the that the is president is committed to reducing our national debt and deficit. this will be my last time in a budget committee hearing. where we're talking about a budget. it's interesting because mr. carbajal and i this morning had a bipartisan breakfast where we talked about how we got to get politics out of the way. the frustrating thing about the budget committee we get into politics versus the substance too often. i was taking notes. it's easier to spend than cut. yes, it is. god help our children and grandchildren. too often we wo

>> there is no security to wait that long to remove social security numbers. >> reporter: assembly woman jackie erwin was appalled to learn instead of fixing the security risk now the edd wants to wait for a complete overhaul of the system. a project to start after 2020. in the meantime it's been urging people to enroll in its online mail. >> it's hard not to laugh when the edd says it can't stop mailing documents like these from my recent maternity leave. keep in mind i'm enrolled in their online services and direct deposit, so i'm notified of payments in two places online where my social security is redacted. still, the edd says it can't stop, won't stop mailing these duplicate statements with my social security number clearly labeled. >> we went to the moon over 40 years ago. we got silicon valley right in our backyard and trying to redact social security numbers is not rocket science. they need to be able to get it done. >> reporter: catherine baker was among the people who demanded a fix >> that's where we have to step in. >> reporter: both she and erwin have meetings scheduled with

you told me, quote, social security disability is not social security. social security disability insurance is disability insurance. it is a welfare program for the disabled, unquote. and i wanted to give you a chance to clarify the answer, but i just want to say that it was added to social security in 1954 and the money for both, the retirement and the disability, are paid for by everyone through their same fica, the same fica contributions. and yet, you distinguish them. so i wondered if you could clarify your answer. >> sure, i think-- and i don't remember the exact context, i remember talking with you and others about it last year, was regarding the president's promises and i think what i tried to make the case last year, could make again right now, will make again right now is that there is something different about social security disability and aa iech achl ssi and which is old age retirement. ssi is not funded through fica, i do not believe, but again, neither are those what a lot of people consider mainline social security. >> even though a lot

social security is a huge component of that. helping policymakers with what they need in addressing social what hasand attacking been the third rail of american politics. how people save for retirement through 401(k)s and preserved that income when they retire and live in increasingly long lives. host: steve mnuchin was asked about the volatility in the market. he said monitoring that situation, not that concerned, how much concern did you see your self? guest: everyone is worried what will happen with their savings. when you look at the bigger picture, the market has been an incredible run for the last seven or eight years. triple, times, double, and looking at a couple of days of that does not take the full picture into perspective. even the last few days it has leveled out and we are net down from the top peak a couple of percents. are taking a long-term view. that is something chairman powell will do. he will not act quickly were rashly to these situations. he thinks about the long-term trajectory and what will come next. hos

the social security system is not in crisis. we can afford a civilized pension system generous enough to allow everyone to have a comfortable and dignified old age. i am getting there, so i'm speaking from my own interests. but i am also speaking for people in the future. a lot of young people think there will not be social security when they get old. i want to fight against that. we can a 40 much more generous public system that can cover everybody in a generous and humane fashion. host: sandra is on the line from wilmington, north carolina, a pension recipient as well. good morning. caller: good morning. i have noticed north carolina's pension fund has also been negatively affected by hedge fund and private equity investment. there is lotsme, of transparency in the investment system. i wondered if you could speak to this and any notion about how it can be reversed. host: go ahead. guest: there is a great lack of transparency. you can look these things up on websites. you look at a line. what are they invested in? what does thi

without national security, social security really doesn't matter. without national security, everything that we enjoy could be lost. so the primary role of the federal government, in my view, is to give the men and women in uniform who are all volunteers what they need to keep us safe. and come tomorrow, they're going to have more. if it means we stay up late tonight, so be it. to the congressional leadership, thank you. to the president, thank you for being a commander in chief we desperately needed for the last eight-plus years. to my colleagues, vote yes. you may get some criticism from people who run blogs, but the next time you see a soldier, you know that you voted right. i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard

i am not being critical but the social security on that discussion. we all know politically it is a difficult area to address. the last one that tried but there is a way forward and i wouldn't expect you to address that but the bipartisan proposal mirrors 1983 with the ideas commissioned but the greenspan commission social security was much closer going bankrupt then it was today the reason we haven't because of the surplus piled up in those intervening years until the generation began to retire now going down pretty rapidly. the opportunity exists to do that again and if we could reform something like that that we presented to three consecutive congresses the president could save social security to put it on firm footing in a bipartisan way. my friends are on the other side means this means slashing but look at ronald reagan with tip o'neill and by the way he won reelection with 49 states and typical neil remained speaker so frankly they gradually raise the age they said i have 34 your 1-year-old will retire at 67 so they put more income in their rai

i long have had a proposal requiring a social security member for the child tax credit is especially relevant now giving the ongoing debate with immigration. can an individual claim with the individual taxpayer dedication? yes or no? but those who aren't allowed to work can get this? yes or no? but i just want to modify my last statement to be clear. the irs has allowed but that is the issue we are looking at those legal issues. we are looking at those legal issues. >> thank you. by the way i just had a joint tax core on my bill that saves $13.3 billion so to address another issue from 2016 included significant retirement reforms that due to the inadvertent era and cannot get the match and then to cap that they can save so mr. secretary state and local government workers to contribute the maximum to both government and civilian retirement accounts. don't you think our brave men and women in uniform should be allowed to do the same? >> thank you very much. we are looking at it carefully to figure out what we can do. >> i appreciate that and i yield back. >> welcome. your statement tal

but right now -- trish: on social security? >> not for social security.alking about medicaid here. she was pushed on to medicaid. trish: well look, there are difficult ways to approach it. i have been down to chile where they have a very interesting privatized system. >> we tried that. trish: bush tried to privatize accounts. we didn't actually try it. where it has been tried in chile it has been extraordinarily successful. people have better rate of return they ever get in a bond or treasury or wherever, the security, social security is stashed. so there are things that we could attempt to do but, politically, it is pretty challenging as you can imagine. >> you need the political will to do it. we didn't see any of that from the republican team. that is what concerns me. it is the fact that really wasn't a part of the discussion t was really all spend. they were playing for the 2018 election obviously. you have to remember, i was part of the tea party movement. that was based on fiscal responsibility and right spending. how many people got elected in con

medicare, medicaid, social security. food assistance, housing and even just to name a few. at a time when this administration and acted complicated tax cuts, the trunk budget fails to provide substantial increases to the primary services that help real americans with their taxes., low income tax spending, tax counseling for the elderly and the taxpayer advocate. at a time when tens of millions of bills passed taxpayers and some states will be grappling with tax increases and a secretary who threatened them with audits, do you propose a budget of increases for a substantive on the ground assistance to help taxpayers. further i'm disturbed that the trunk budget calls for an investment in enforcement when your private debt collection this year targeted ssdi and si recipients, subjected in progress social security recipients to be leveraged even though they were impoverished and put 45 percent of the taxpayers into installment agreements they could afford. it seems that your enforcement focuses on increasing the profits ofdebt collectors at the expense of the disabled , the imp

we spend 840 billion on social security. the fence wdefense we will spent $700 million. if interest rates go up to 6.3% -- this is what i asked when i tried to be the canary in the coal mine to say this is happening if we don't get fiscal house in order, 6.83% you are not about trillion dollars for additional interest payments. i don't know how we sustain that and you are a very smart man mr. treasury secretary. how do you sustain that type of debt and keep america strong and vibrant going forward? >> first of all commend the president shares your concern but it's gone from 10 trillion to 20 trillion over the last eight years and these are issues we need to look at and we look forward to working with you. >> it is imperative that we keep this in order. >> mr. secretary, the tax bill was pushed through cost more than a trillion $500 billion, then we have the interest and it goes on forever. 80% of the money we spend goes to the top 1% and some would say a little more than that. they got a handout of $3.4 billion from the u.s. treasury. you are the secretary of the treasur

social security might be cut.ay back the money they borrowed from social security, keep it going, it will never run out because social security is paid for for life, everybody pays for it. we give free stuff to free people who come into this country free, allowed to bring families in free. to peopleiving away, who don't deserve it. host: that debate takes place in the senate next week on monday at 5:30. house speaker paul ryan this morning, after they voted on the house side, to keep the government open, he said he was committed to a debate on immigration. another 2 paragraphs from this article. " the tenure budget window, without interest payments, this $2.1 trillionch in additional spending. deborah in new jersey. caller: i just wanted to comment. i thought senator rand paul basically is the conscience of the senate and the house and the congress by getting up and saying, how ridiculous it is that every year we keep on increasing, the spending limit. we keep on increasing the national debt, 20 chilean dollars an

yes.r: you know they say, social security.icarento that in and social security was supposed to be a trust fund. whenever they want to fund like 20 million people with insurance, they pull the money out of medicare and social security so they can give illegals free benefits education, medical, i mean, so really, it is their fault our country is in this mess. >> there are a lot of legitimate complaints in the town. i tried to do my best to dispel of the ones that just aren't true. we just promise people more money in benefits than we ever collected in taxes. it was true and democrats and republicans had to come together in 1983 to reorganize the trust fund, and it is true today. for medicare, the same thing is true. you do not get it unless you have eight intuit your entire life. thing i did not realize until i got to congress is those dollars you and i paid, that was only for medicare part a or it if you have part the for your as most americans do, you have not paid a penny for that nor have i. same thing with medicare part d.

he had heard about something called child in care benefits that social security afforded. he went down to the local social security office and he said, i'd like to apply for child in care benefits. the benefits were arranged so that you could earn up to a certain amount and still get the benefits. once you went above that amount, your benefit was reduced dollar-for-dollar. but steven thought that with the social security benefits and his part-time earnings he could just about make it. he was told by an attendant at the social security office, these are mother's benefits and not available to fathers. 1970's now, early and steven wisenfeld writes a letter to the editor of his local edison, new jersey, newspaper. it goes like this. "i hear a lot these days about women's lib. let me tell you my story." he tells what happen at the social security office and his tagline was, "does gloria steinem know about this?" i was teaching at rutgers at the time. a woman who taught on the faculty lived in the same town, read the letter, called stephen and suggested that he contact the new j

social security is a huge component of that. lping policymakers with what they need in addressing social what hasand attacking been the third rail of american politics. how people save for retirement through 401(k)s and preserved that income when they retire and live in increasingly long lives. host: steve mnuchin was asked about the volatility in the market. he said monitoring that situation, not that concerned, how much concern did you see your self? guest: everyone is worried what will happen with their savings. when you look at the bigger picture, the market has been an incredible run for the last seven or eight years. triple, times, double, and looking at a couple of days of that does not take the full picture into perspective. even the last few days it has leveled out and we are net down from the top peak a couple of percents. are taking a long-term view. that is something chairman powell will do. he will not act quickly were rashly to these situations. he thinks about the long-term trajectory and what will come next. host:

social security, disabilities, insurance, cut back. the list goes on. it is not a statement of values of the american people. it repeals the affordable care act. raising health costs, taking health coverage away from millions. it -- education, we were talking about jobs for the 21st century, $200 billion in cuts in student loan initiatives, pell grants, farmers in rural america, cuts 15% from usda, united states department of agriculture and key rural water and energy initiative. hundredry families. hungry families. cuts $214 billion from food stamps. the president is going to give them a box of processed food. a box of processed food. and infrastructure, again, at e same time, a black cloud predicated -- their predicate is this tax cut which is everything to them, it's in their d.n.a. they'll have trickle down tax cuts at the high end, banquet for everyone up here, crumbs for people down here. the speaker bragged about somebody getting $1.50 a month, in a year she'll get $60 and pay her costco entry fee or something. really? really in while others get

getting poised to take on and social security. bill roth, a guy i did the ith for years first major tax cut. roth-kent. made no bones about if. he used to use the phrase more cat. he if you don't like what you put him. don't feed it was about building deficits, starving the government so there was no money for the we know we need. does any of you doubt that paul an n doesn't have as objective with the tax cut to starve the government, create deficits, make it incredibly difficult to provide health care. laying the ground work for justifying why we have to cut social security, something they've been trying to do for the better part of four decades? look, folks. i don't have a doubt in my mind can't cut out the time to why we are le democrats, presumptuous for me to any of you, ask yourself why did you become a democrat? our guess is because you really thought, you really believed to beeveryone is entitled treated with dignity, that the capable of ople are anything if given a chance. no one is looking for a hand out. opportunity. yo

social security is a critical retirement security plan in this country, and for far too many families it is the only thing they can rely on in retirement, something we need to fix and we need to exacerbate it by complicating the social security retirement crisis with the problem of paid family leave. so i am here to advocate for a bill that senator gillibrand has introduced, and i have cosponsored, called the family act. it is a real federal paid leave policy that i think we desperately need. we need to support working families in this bill because this would truly make that promise of family paid leave possible. so our bill provides 12 weeks of partially paid leave for workers dealing with serious health issues on their own, including birth and adoption of children or for family members. our bill would create an affordable effective earned benefit that both employers and employees could contribute to and would contribute to. for employees, the paid leave benefit would always apply to them no matter where they live. it is transportable, which is so important in this new gig economy. a

we're telling social security, do it. do it and do it now.n we're telling the agencies, now that you have the information stop paying dead people and while we're at it, we're telling the social security administration to update your death file. the social security administration lists 6.5 million people who are 112 years old or older. i think it is out dated. >> senator john kennedy from louisiana. risking losing the dead's people's vote but an interesting proposal and one worthy of discussion. it is always a pleasure to have you with us, sir. >> thank you. >>> her kidnapping stung the world but what came next was even more shocking. patty hurst, you don't know the half of it. a sneak peek at the new cnn series next. "volatile markets." something we all think about as we head into retirement. it's why brighthouse financial is committed to help protect what you've earned and ensure it lasts. introducing shield annuities, a line of products that allow you to take advantage of growth opportunities. while maintaining a level of protection in down

without national security, social security really doesn't matter. without national security, everything that we enjoy could be lost. so the primary role of the federal government, in my view, is to give the men and women in uniform who are all volunteers what they need to keep us safe. and come tomorrow, they're going to have more. if it means we stay up late tonight, so be it. to the congressional leadership, thank you. to the president, thank you for being a commander in chief we desperately needed for the last eight-plus years. to my colleagues, vote yes. you may get some criticism from people who run blogs, but the next time you see a soldier, you know that you voted right. i yield. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you. i will be making a unanimous consent request here in a second. the reason i'm doing this, i think every hour that we go without funding the military, every day that we wait, the longer we continue this madness, the worse it is for those who fight a war we can't aff

host: what about the taxon social security? at a certainap out amounts, and for those who make more, what will that be? guest: that would be an interesting test. if you see a compromise, i do not know if it happens. i am staring at the great dome. people say, we have to do this for the sake of our country. i do not know if there was enough focus on bipartisanship for people to come together. if i take it out of your heart, in terms of increasing the benefit and distribution age, you will have to follow on a means testing this more, and taxing people into several of hundreds of thousands of dollars if they enjoyed in easier retirements. host: the book is called "hotel scarface: where cowboys plotted to control miami." jobs, theking about economy and the stock market. scott is from new york, and investor. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you question host: fine, -- how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i'm a stock owner but have clients in entertainment. when the new tax law passed, we had them passed through ent

i am going to protect and save your social security and your medicare. you made a deal a long time ago. >> now, as for the press secretary, sarah sanders pointing to the fbi as to why there are some staffers working out full security clearances, the fbi says it is up to the white house to act on information that comes in back ground checks. also, she will not say whether don mcgahn knew about it last year and she said that mcgahn staying at the white house is not going to change. >> how are they defending the president's projected proposed cuts? hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years in medicare and medicaid after he repeatedly promised during campaign no, cuts to social security, medicare or medicaid. >> i think it is a big question. one of the things that goes on here at the white house is that when we all focus these shiny object stories of the day, these are the sorts of things that don't get covered very much. this white house is absolutely proposing big cuts to entitlement programs, big cuts to domestic programs, and medicare is one

short answer to question is i don't have any position from the governments perspective on the social security numbers but we recognize the more identifiers used, the more unique information that you require your customers to provide, the more secure you are. just a couple years can we didn't use chip and p.i.n. system in the u.s. i think that prevents a large amount of fraud. i think does require continuing strategizing by the private sector about how we can best protect our customers and protect against loss. >> any other questions? if not, let's conclude by, this is an individual he was spent multiple decades serving a country and that the vice president said with incredible independence, integrity and character. as you can see just an outstanding individual and we really grateful he would take time out of his busy schedule to be with us this afternoon. so thank you for your service, and let's thank him. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> today fbi officials told a senate committee about plans to update the washington headquarters and featured this exchange with senator b

if you want lower social security and lower retirements, hopefully we don't see the supreme court do this. is, 19% is -- the union now. if he does not like paying union dues, there are 81% that are nonunion. he doesn't want one of those because they do not pay nothing. host: thank you. guest: he states a good premise. public service workers bring a very stable workforce, a wealth of experience and expertise. i have been on my job 23 years. i am still in the middle of the pack in regards to seniority. this their and make profession. a lot of people may come to their jobs, but they come to engage in their profession. we are all professionals. when you talk about best practices or best standards, those are things we have come up with. we have set the tone in regards to how society is dealt with and how the government delivers. host: what are fees like? local has individual the autonomy to set the fees. there is a minimal standard set by international and it is broken down by that standpoint. from local to local, it varies. it is not a percentage of your paycheck. it is a flat rate. host

i couldn't go to these schools because i didn't have a social security number. this is the point, my colleagues, you can't get a social security number, and therefore i wasn'tible eligible for financial aid. i couldn't pursue the dreams i had been hoping for but did i not let my undocumented status hold me back from continuing to advance academically. enrolled at gold gateway community college. graduated with 3.8 g.p.a. to then be able to attend university. graduated magna cum laude. it's surreal, she says, to work -- wake up every day and be reminded even though i have been living in america in the past 18 years, all my honors and education may not end up mattering anymore because i can't contribute to the country which i have called home for so long. my name is maria. i was born in peru and moved to the united states when i was 5 years old. documentation after documentation of how young these children were when they came to the united states. all because their parents wanted to make the future better for them. andrea writes, my dad was a fighter pilot in the p

remember when bush was running on the whole idea of privatizing social security? the markets were rallying and it sounded like a great idea. >> right. >> all of a sudden the market went the opposite direction. everybody's social security, that little bank account would have been wiped out overnight and that's what we have to keep reminding the american people. >> speaking of this week. i ran into people and i said, should i sell it all? what happened this week? >> there are concerns. people are figuring out that our economy is heating up and unemployment continues to drop. wage pressures are going up a little bit so it makes it a little more expensive for companies to pay people and then we have interest rates going up because we are worried about this inflation in part caused by this tax cut. the bottom line is we have had ten similar, ten similar adjustments over the last nine years. on average, they happen once a year, but we haven't had one for two years and it has greater velocity and is most ferocious and has more velocity or as my friend says veracity. ther

the proposal that you see that touch on social security don't deal with core social security. we try to address reforms in disability insurance. >> what do you propose? >> let's talk about medicare. we do not promote -- propose any changes to benefits or services to beneficiaries. we try to focus on lowering drug prices. the number i have heard a couple is that weday propose to cut medicare by half $1 trillion, the number is 236 billion and most of that is in drug reforms and other proposals. i don't know if you know this, , moneyr medicare money you pay in fica that goes into the medicare trust fund goes to pay for regiment medical school tuition. it goes to pay for debt for non-medicare patients at hospitals. >> are you eliminating that? >> we move it to another part of the budget, so we still pay them but not out of the trust fund. a lot of folks think that is a cut the medicare, it is actually improving the medicare trust fund. >> we are out of time. thank you. >> senator kennedy. director, i'm over here. >> you are on my right, i know that senator kennedy. >> the correct

what the republican seem to be doing is saying their long-term goal is to reduce social security and medicare. that a like to point out lot of the debt this government has and because they borrowed the social security. they have never paid them back. they should start paying them back and not end up forcing social security down to pay for a wall or extra military. and everything else. that's my comment. guest: she brings up a great what thethat republicans and what paul ryan would say is that we have to deal with this entitlement issue. that's what's really making our budget out of whack. that's why we are on the trajectory that we are. but at this point in time, it's an election year, there is no appetite for wholesale dealing with these issues. legit that is not going to balance and you have the deficits going out of have a and you republican-controlled congress who under president obama, this is their main thing that we have to deal with the debt and we can't keep doing this to our children. now it's just kind of like we will make it work. we will just give spending and see what h

we've got a death file at social security, but social security won't share it with its sister agencies. so people are being -- dead people are getting checks and they're being cashed. obviously there's fraud. in some states you can vote when your dead but casting a government check is just a breach too far as far as i'm concern. so i hope you'll continue that. in the few minutes i have left i want to get a little maybe meta physical here. we talked about the need for a balanced budget, but sometimes -- and i support a balanced budget. but sometimes i think we conflate balanced budget with government responding. and here's what i mean. we've got a $20 trillion economy. that's all the goodies and services we produce every year. if government is spending $4 trillion, i know the president's budget comes in a little higher. but if the government's spending $4 trillion, the government's taking $4 trillion out of let's say, $20 trillion -- are you with me so far? okay, do you think america would be better off if we had a balanced budget of $4 trillion of government spending and $4 trillion in

we will never do it. >> disability may be -- but not social security. but social security disability one out of 20 americans are on disability now. >> that's a beeted thing and do something about it been butout flow of money and medicare and social security that has to be stopped if you want a handle on government spending on the debt you've got to do that. and you can't do it is the nature of american plucks. just my opinion. last word to you. >> i think you're absolute right one of the things to remember about mr. o'connell is he's interested many making a good deal rather than doing the right thing he's a legislator not a conservative and he doesn't have 51 conservative votes. as long as you've got -- collins and who really come from welfare states. that's where these guys are. there you got leak one out of ten collected welfare you really can't get anything done. we saw that with with the health care debate. they simply weren't willing to vote for a bill that makes a reasonable reform on medicaid. it's perfectly fine for senate collins in maine to g

they paid the same social security taxes that they didn't use the same benefits and then a few of them thought this is discrimination. the law tells them you have no choice, you have to be a full-time girder and hire a substitute. it is when it is male so everybody was hurt by this gender-based discrimination. such a lovely metaphor. [inaudible] we will get one for justice ginsburg. >> i feel like there is a lovely metaphor and the answers that show gender a quality is for women and children did you see it that way? around at that time you delivered support for the equal rights amendment which act at tt time passed both houses of congress but never ratified by enough states to become part of the constitution. now i'm just wondering do we need an era now especially in this meet to movement? >> the constitution is powerfully hard to amend. after congress it takes three quarters of the state to ratify and if so three states short of a talented get you to the point that you would be if there were an equal rights amendment and then i take out o my pocket constitution and say i have three gr

poised to take on medicare and social security. gaia worked with for years made no bones about it. use the phrase if you don't like him but don't feed him it is about starving the government so there was no money for the things that we know that we need what about paul ryan doesn't have the objective for the tax cut to starve the government to make it incredibly difficult for us to provide healthcare to lay the groundwork to justify why we have to cut medicare or social security something they have been trying to do for the better part of four decades. look, i don't have a doubt in my mind if we can cut out the time to remind people why we are democrats. that is presumptuous for me to say to you but why do you become a democrat? my guess is you really believe everybody is entitled that the american people are capable if given a chance nobody is looking for a handout just an opportunity feeling the role of government is to give that opportunity i have been doing this a long time. what i say now will sound counterintuitive but i am more optimistic about america's chances to own the 2

you are not making changes in election air op-ed in journal income transfers medicaid medicaid social security food stamps among other things coy 47.7% outlays in 89, today 69. % outlays doesn't include net interest only det another 7 1/2. >> deficits that you saw from interest mulvaney's budget central deficits before the agreement baby boomers retiring not ready for them a struck deficit because of entitlement spending biggest driv health care entitlements one of the casualty bill not passing not getting health care entitlement reform we've got to reform health care entitlements never give up on he traemg health care if you reformer health care you take care of the central drivers of our debt medicare medicaid. >> graham cassidy repeal bill almost passed senate one area president has said this is maybe should be focus we are going to try this again this year? >> i think a lot of 2450i7ks we can he do, first of all, in this bill we passed we got medicaid means testing repealed i-- got rid of obamacare slush funds repealed individual mandate in tax bill incremental gains when we realized could

so if you qualify for social security, you get it. those areas, social security, medicare, medicaid, other mandatory programs, those are out of the control of congress. apportion congress is able to control is invalid. -- is in blue. half of it is defense, and then the rest everything else government does. you won't be surprised to see which portion of the budget is the portion that is growing fastest. the squiggly red line across the top shows government revenues, tax revenues as a percentage of the economy. over a long period of time it has been around 18% to 20% of the total economy. then you see social security, medicaid, medicare, and interest, as they are projected to the future. they obviously consume all the federal government's revenue, not to mention the rest of government, but defense and all the other functions of government carries out. that can't happen. that will overwhelm us. let me turn to the next area. we've got to deal with this. we've got to change our entitlement programs in such a way that they are there for the