[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H551-H552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, my constituents asked, as I came to the 
U.S. Congress, that we engage in deliberation and serious debates on 
the problems of the American people.
  I have been reading in my office letters that have come, handwritten, 
notably by aged individuals, who asked me simply to save their Social 
Security.
  I went home almost the very first week, not to tell people what I was 
going to do but to ask them what they would have the U.S. Congress do. 
In a hearing, one after another pleaded and begged that we would 
respond to the needs of those who needed Social Security.
  Mr. Speaker, a balanced budget amendment that does not protect Social 
Security violates the rights of needy citizens across this Nation.
  In recognition of this great tragedy, those of us on the Committee on 
the Judiciary offered an amendment, a simple bipartisan amendment, to 
save Social Security. This was soundly defeated by the Republican 
majority.
  We have already heard over 100,000 million dollars will be taken out 
of Medicare and Medicaid. Texas will lose 35 percent of its benefits.
  I simply ask that we own up to our responsibility and save Social 
Security.
            [[Page H552]] PASS THE BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, you know, each month, sometimes at the 
beginning of the month, sometimes at the end of the month, but surely 
during the course of the month, the American middle-class families must 
sit down and assess their finances, and as a result of these 
assessments, many new dresses and suits and weekends out and stereos 
and want-to-have type purchases yield to such mundane purchases as new 
dryers, new washing machines, automobile repairs, new roofs for the 
house, other type things like that.
  The American middle class must do this, because their expenses cannot 
exceed their revenues. It is essential. It is common sense.
  And now the U.S. Congress can join them in this effort. We have 
ignored this for too long. The last balanced budget was in 1969.
  This week we can change everything by the passage of a balanced 
budget amendment. Let us pass it and do what middle-class America has 
to do each month.

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