(Washington, DC) - Congressman Wally Herger (R-CA) issued the following statement in response to reports that the Social Security trust fund surplus is diminishing due to declining payroll tax revenue.  Click here to read the Washington Post article.  Herger’s comments follow below:

“Some Members of Congress have tried very hard to ignore our impending entitlement crisis.  The news story in the Washington Post makes that a lot harder to deny.  It's no surprise that the current economic climate is affecting the Social Security trust fund.  The federal government has raided Social Security to finance an array of unrelated spending projects.  A rapidly diminishing Social Security surplus will force us to borrow even more from foreign governments already growing skittish about buying our debt. 

“With both Social Security and Medicare now projected to run out of money years earlier than expected, we need to act now on entitlement reform before our current financial situation becomes any worse.  The only alternatives are enormous tax increases or unprecedented levels of debt, either of which would cripple our economy.  We can't pass the buck on entitlement reform any longer.  I urge President Obama to act upon his promise to make entitlement reform a top priority and ensure that we preserve Social Security for future generations.”