BY MIKE CETERA
The last time we heard from Adam Florzak, he was an employee at the local Caterpillar plant whose mission in life was to reform Social Security. That mission hasn't changed.
Florzak was featured on Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate.
Here's a transcript of the responses from Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney:
Cooper: Senator Thompson, a lot of retirees here in Florida. Ninety seconds.THOMPSON: One of the things I would do for his generation is protect him from our generation.
(Applause)
He's absolutely right, we're spending his money, we're spending his children's money, and we're spending the money of kids yet to be born.
In 2017, Social Security will be in the red. Pretty soon it'll be out of money, it'll go bankrupt. In fact, our entitlement programs put together will take over the entire budget by about 2040.
So that's why I get back to the point I made earlier. All these programs that we talk about in the news every day are a thimbleful in ocean compared to the entitlement tsunami that's coming to hit us.
Now, we can do some things now, as I've proposed about Social Security, without having to really hurt anybody, and give people to invest for their future while they're still working. Or we can wait and let our grandkids or children, depending on how old they are, solve this problem that we have left them. It's not only a fiscal issue; it's a moral issue, as far as I'm concerned.
Cooper: Governor McCain?
(Applause)
I'm sorry -- Governor Romney, 30 seconds.
Romney: Thank you.
That's one of the problems we face, and a big one, which is the over-spending in Washington and the debt and the obligations we have.
We also face tough new competition coming from Asia. We face global jihad, which we just talked about very briefly. We face a whole series of extraordinary problems -- over-use of oil, entitlement is out of control.
It's time for us to recognize we're going to have to take a new course in this country -- not follow Hillary Clinton off to the left; instead, to follow the pathway Ronald Reagan blazed, which is to say we're going to have a stronger America with a stronger economy and have somebody who understands how jobs come and go, who understands what propels our economy, will strengthen our economy, strengthen our military and strengthen our families.
A message board at CNN lets viewers respond to Adam's question and the candidates' answers.
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