(CNN) - Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee brought out his fatherly instinct in Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube debate when asked about the government dipping into Social Security funds to quell massive budget deficits.
"One of the things I would do for his generation is protect it from our generation," Thompson said. A new father himself, Thompson continued over audience applause to say, "We are spending the money of kids yet to be born."
In reference to Social Security, Thompson added, "Pretty soon it will be out of money. It will go bankrupt … we can't wait and let our grandkids and children, depending on how old they are, solve the problems we left them."
In Thompson's view, the pressing deficit issue is not only a fiscal issue, but also a moral issue.
–CNN's Emily Sherman
From CNN Politics
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Ron Paul has said about Social Security going bankrupt long before Fred Thompson even mentioned it.
We need strong conservative leadership to crack down on social security disability fraud. there's most likely thousands of people accepting payments illegally. This is a start in cutting down on SS spending.
social security is a self money generating system, government should not have any authority in touching the money of the hard working citizen. social security money is not the govenment money, it is the hard working citizen money, thats what the word security mean.
How dumb can the Republicans be. Education and Soc Sec are in trouble in this country because they want them to fail. Why? So they can let us all take our money and invest into stocks in the company's their buddies run after they prop up the company's financials, and then walk away with the profits. Remember Enron? Think about the disaster if everyone invested in a field of stocks where laws are loose and the CEO's are crooked. And if you agree with self investing instead of Soc Sec., tell me who is going to bail YOU out when after 20 or so years of investing in a couple of company's that you picked all of a sudden announce, like Enron did, that "It's all gone." Your money is all gone. Explain to me what you are going to live on, especially since you Republicians don't believe in the government helping out the poor which YOU now are. One more thing. I have many Rep. friends. All of which don't think the troubled and downtrodden should be helped out by government. No hand outs for the the poor. Funny thing....ALL of these friends have rich parents who HAND-OUT money to them on a regular basis. It seems they have no problem with hand outs after all. Hippocrits! No way around it!
On education, Rep want it to fail and by the way GEORGE is doing everything he can to make it fail. Whit leaders like this who needs Osama!
... another old chestnut ... the SS system as well as Fred. Let's whip up a good young vs old war instead of proposing reasonable adjustments... or checking the facts ... which don't support the dire predictions.
We could also discuss the trillions of borrowed dollars spent on an useless war in Iraq – the huge deficit is also damaging our children's futures ... and the money that will be invested in care and treatment of all the injured veterans is still uncounted ... and better not be pushed aside for tax cuts for the soon-to-be-richer GOP supporters.
Thanks for that update. Sure would have loved to hear if any of the "stand-ups" had some ideas?
Where that CNN headline about how the Democrats ignored Social Security during their debate?
Does this guy have anything to say that has not already been said?
If he really wanted to stun us, he should have come up with a solution to the problem and talked about that.
Al Gore's "lockbox" does'nt sound too bad now, does it?
AJ from VT,
He has a detailed SS plan he has already released to the public. Should prob do some research before running on like that. He has come up with a solution. I don't like it, I don't believe SS should even exist, but at least he put an idea out there.
to AJ
He has laid out his plan to fix SS. In fact, it a very detailed plan with actual numbers in it. Educate yourself. It's on his website.
http://www.fred08.com/virtual/socialsecurity.aspx
other issues
http://www.fred08.com/Principles/PrinciplesSummary.aspx?View=OnTheIssues
social security could have been saved if the senate and congress would keep from using it as a slush fund. washington is the reason it is broke.
Social Security is going broke because they give it to people who don't need it. They never check up on people that have been on it for years, and no longer need it. Like i know this lady who got s.s.i for her 2 boys when they were 4 or 5. they are now 25. They still get s.s.i and are holding jobs under the table , no taxes taken out. They do not need it. but dose s.s. check on them every year no. They just send her checks for them. If s.s. would have they come in every 6 months and follow up on dr. appt for them. They would know these boys do not need s.s.i. Another lady i know signs her self in the hospital once a year saying she is crazy so she will still get her checks and she don't need they, just to lazy to work.
Let it go broke!! Then maybe Americans will learn to take care of themselves before the entire government collapes..
Bill Clinton raided the Social Security fund and lied to the people that he balanced the budget, he forgot to tell them where he got the money. It's the lies, stupid!
I agree with the comments that we need to look more closely into SS fraud. My husband keeps telling me that fraud is just a drop in the bucket but shouldn't we start somewhere. I know of a person who has collected SDI all of his adult like, has never paid a cent into the system, and received an inheritance of over half a million dollars and somehow continues to receive benefits. I reported this to the Social Security Fraud Hotline and am treated like I am the one committing a crime!
ima on ssdi and ssi i get checked evey 6 years to see se if getting better or worse you people make me sick why dont you give on workmans comp and fend for your self like telling other people thier our people who have mentel problem and phyical on who cant work so your sayimg they should starve to save you money on your taxes alos you cant get sdi with out working it insurance i worked for ten years to get my ssdi
first if one gets 1ooo dollars amonth and rent is 500 a month then groceries and medicene well your broke when you get your check