[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 6088]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ULTIMATE TEST OF A MORAL SOCIETY

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                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 15, 2008

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, according to GAO we are $5.3 trillion deep 
in publicly held debt, and have an estimated $54.3 trillion in unfunded 
promised benefits if we don't change our current course.
  The Social Security and Medicare Trustees reports recently issued 
only reinforce the dire condition of our fiscal health.
  This is a fundamental issue for our country's economic future. It's 
also a generational issue.
  Pete Peterson's commentary in Newsweek last week ends by quoting 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who was instrumental in the 
resistance movement against Nazism.
  He said, ``The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world 
it leaves to its children.''
  I can't help but wonder what sort of future today's partisan 
Washington is leaving generations to come. If we can come together--
both sides of the aisle--we can ensure that our children and 
grandchildren have all the opportunity you and I have had.
  The bipartisan Cooper-Wolf SAFE Commission could give this country a 
chance to get back on track--to rein in entitlement spending. If there 
are other bipartisan ideas on how to address this issue, we should talk 
about those too.
  Doing nothing is simply not an option. I urge Congressional 
leadership and Treasury Secretary Paulson to embrace the Cooper-Wolf 
legislation.

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