[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 39 (Thursday, March 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2492]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


         BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT PUTS SOCIAL SECURITY AT RISK

  (Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, those who are arguing that 
the current form of the balanced budget amendment puts Social Security 
at risk are undeniably correct. The amendment says that in the year 
2002 it will be mandatory that any surplus from Social Security be used 
to reduce the overall deficit elsewhere in the Federal Government for 
the purposes of achieving balance. What this means is that there will 
be a constitutional imperative to the Congress to cut Social Security 
expenditures if they need to do that to make up the deficit elsewhere.
  That is not an academic threat. The Speaker of this House has 
demanded that the Bureau of Labor Statistics recalculate the Consumer 
Price Index. Reducing the Consumer Price Index has as its major impact 
saying that older people get less of a cost-of-living increase under 
Social Security.
  So when the Republicans push a form of the balanced budget amendment 
that allows, indeed, compels, any surplus in Social Security to be used 
to offset a deficit elsewhere and simultaneously argues that we should 
cut the Consumer Price Index, which has as its major fiscal impact 
reducing the cost-of-living increase, we see why Senators are right to 
oppose this amendment in its current form.

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