[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 33 (Friday, March 14, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2309-S2311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CPI ADJUSTMENT

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I want to call the attention of the Senate 
to an article that appeared in the March 13 edition of the Washington 
Post, headlined, ``President Won't Back CPI Panel.'' This article 
discusses President Clinton's decision to not go forward with 
establishing an independent panel to examine the cost-of-living 
adjustments for Social Security and other Federal benefits. I think 
that is an unfortunate development because, clearly, there is 
bipartisan support for that effort. Members of both the Republican and 
Democrat Parties are on record and have made public statements saying 
that they believe this effort ought to go forward, whether it is an 
effort undertaken by a commission, or whether it is something that we 
engage in ourselves or ask the executive branch to do by Executive 
order.
  Clearly, we are faced with a situation where we have to step forward, 
to lead, to address one of the most fundamental of all structural 
reforms necessary to curb the unchecked growth of entitlements.
  Beginning with his State of the Union Address, the President has been 
telling the Congress and the American public of his desire to sit down 
and work out a solution to the coming entitlement crisis, and we have 
responded on our side by saying that we are willing to do this. In 
fact, in our budget last year, we recommended and voted for doing this. 
But now it seems obvious that, for some reason, the administration, the 
President and his party--and, frankly, a number of interest groups who 
have so much influence among those who oppose entitlement reform--plan 
to return to the same kind of rhetoric on Medicare and Social Security, 
and the same political tactics that serve to undermine the very health 
of the programs that they purport to protect.
  Well, we don't have to go very far, Mr. President, to find out what 
the intention of the President and his party is in this regard, thanks 
to a former assistant to the President, Mr. Harold Ickes. In a pile of 
documents that Mr. Ickes recently submitted to the House committee 
investigating illegal activities at the White House, there was a 
revealing memo.
  Rich Lowry, of the New Republic, recently reported that a February 
1995 memo that Mr. Ickes sent to the President included ``a proposed 
direct mail appeal to be sent by the Democratic National Committee over 
[the chairman's] signature, focusing on the Republican proposal to 
recalculate the inflation rate, thereby reducing COLA payments on 
Social Security benefits.''
  The memo then goes on to provide a draft of the proposed letter 
giving some insight into the scare tactics that have been the signature 
of the DNC, the President, and organizations like the AARP, which 
refers to the CPI fix as ``a cowardly, back-door political gimmick to 
take tens of billions of dollars out of the pockets of senior 
citizens.''
  This is familiar verbiage and familiar rhetoric. We have seen it now 
in campaign after campaign over the last decade. We heard it in last 
year's Medicare reform debate.

[[Page S2310]]

  The letter goes on to say, ``If the Republicans can force the Federal 
Government to lower its estimate of inflation, then they can 
dramatically reduce the cost-of-living-adjustments received by every 
Social Security recipient in America.''
  I ask, where is the bipartisanship in this statement? It is hardly a 
reference to what the President has been saying in terms of sitting 
down and working together to address a very real problem. And it is 
hardly an indication of how we had hoped to move forward addressing 
some of the serious problems in the Medicare trust fund and the Social 
Security system. One has to question how serious the President, and his 
party, really are about meaningful entitlement reform if they intend to 
continue to frighten seniors rather than honestly addressing the 
problem.
  Mr. Ickes' proposed fundraising letter goes on to state, ``We cannot 
remain silent while the new Congress finances another round of tax cuts 
for the wealthiest Americans by reducing the hard-earned benefits 
received by older Americans.'' The letter provides a preprepared 
petition to be sent to the then majority leader, Bob Dole, and Speaker 
Newt Gingrich saying, ``I am outraged at the Republican plan to use 
phony inflation estimates to reduce the Social Security COLA's of 
America's senior citizens.''
  So the question here is, Is the President of the United States 
willing to step apart from the recommendations and rhetoric of his own 
party? Is he willing to step forward and provide leadership, as I think 
any President should, particularly when not facing reelection, on one 
of the most fundamental problems that we have as a nation and agree to 
a bipartisan process to preserve Social Security and reform Medicare 
for the long run? In President Clinton's State of the Union Address to 
the Congress, the President said, ``We must agree to a bipartisan 
process to preserve Social Security and reform Medicare for the long 
run . . .'' And Republicans, who had just been hammered to death over 
proposing that very same concept a year before, said, ``Well, the 
problem is big enough that you are right. We ought to do that. Even 
though we may have a right to feel pretty bitter about how that effort 
was used against us electorally, we think it is important enough for 
this Nation that we ought to go ahead. So we will reach out in a 
bipartisan fashion.''
  So it is extremely disappointing to read here--I hope it is wrong but 
I think it is correct--that the President has abandoned his efforts at 
providing leadership for structural reforms within the Social Security 
and Medicare trust funds. But the President is not alone in his cynical 
attempt to scare our senior citizens.
  I want to conclude my remarks by addressing another institution that 
has undermined our ability to accomplish what everybody knows we need 
to accomplish. No group has played a more destructive nor a more 
deceptive role in entitlement reform than the American Association of 
Retired Persons, known as the AARP. We know the AARP is that wonderful 
organization that only charges I think $8 to join once you reach the 
age of 50. I must admit I was a little shocked when I got my first 
mailing from the AARP. I think I was 45 when the first mailing came 
saying you are approaching senility here, and you had better join our 
group. I said, ``I am not old enough for this. I thought retirement was 
65 and over.'' But the AARP has wisely, from a financial standpoint, 
reached down and convinced people that at the age of 50 and lower they 
can take advantage of the benefits offered to the AARP. I am not ready 
to concede that I am ready for those benefits, although they are pretty 
attractive. For that 8 bucks you get access to all kinds of things.

  But the problem is that on the issue most fundamental to the future 
of this country and to the future of senior citizens--Medicare and 
Social Security--the AARP takes a totally disingenuous, plays a totally 
deceptive role, a destructive role in terms of our ability to try to 
preserve those trust funds for future users and future beneficiaries.
  We know that a train wreck is coming on entitlements. How do we know 
that? We know that because the board of trustees that included, at the 
time, three members of the President's Cabinet told us that this train 
wreck was coming. They told us that there is an urgent problem that we 
need to address on a bipartisan basis. And they told us that we cannot 
be prey to the political ranting and raving of self-serving 
organizations like the AARP. Robert Rubin, the Secretary of the 
Treasury, Robert Reich, then Secretary of Labor, Donna Shalala, 
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Shirley 
Chater, the Commissioner of Social Security, and the Acting Principal 
Deputy Commissioner of Social Security, told us, ``Folks, there is a 
train wreck coming. You have your head in the sand. You are letting 
political demagoguery deter you from doing what you have to do. If you 
want to preserve Social Security, if you want to preserve Medicare and 
the benefits in Medicare, you have to get hold of this out-of-control 
entitlement process.'' We all know that.
  Medicare part A is scheduled to be bankrupt--bankrupt--by the year 
2002. The Social Security trust fund will begin running a deficit at 
2013 and collapse by 2029.
  That is not political rhetoric. Those are the conclusions of a 
distinguished panel of trustees that studied the system. And it comes 
out of this administration. It is not a group of Republican 
conservatives trying to kneecap the Social Security system. These are 
responsible people appointed by the President to serve on this panel. 
They are his own people. Yet, we go careening from election to election 
totally ignoring these warnings, knowing that somebody is going to have 
to pay an enormous price in the future, knowing that we are undermining 
the very system that we say we are trying to preserve.
  And the group that is most responsible for putting pressure on us, 
politically demagoging this issue, is the American Association of 
Retired Persons. They continue to tell their members that there is 
nothing wrong with Social Security, that there is nothing wrong with 
Medicare, that there is no crisis. They continue to press Congress to 
block any solution. The AARP, the second-largest nonprofit organization 
in America, second only to the Catholic church, has a staff of 1,700 
people funded by the dues of 33 million members along with $191 million 
in profits earned through the sale of insurance policies, mutual funds, 
mail-order pharmaceuticals, automobile rentals, automobile club 
memberships, Visa and Mastercard credit cards, and hotel room discount 
packages, and so forth. That is OK. I am glad they are in that 
business. I am glad they are providing those benefits to the seniors. 
Their expressed purpose is to serve the needs and interests of our 
Nation's elderly.
  But, Mr. President, the only thing we hear up here from the AARP, 
other than requests for membership dues, is, if we dare even speak 
about addressing the problems of Medicare and Social Security, they are 
going to go after us politically.
  Now we have this looming disaster with Medicare and Social Security. 
Once again, the AARP is joining hands with those who oppose the system 
to terrorize our Nation's seniors.
  In a recent Insight magazine article, Horace Deets, the AARP's 
executive director, is quoted as saying: ``Social Security has worked 
well for 60 years, and there is no reason to believe that it is on the 
verge of bankruptcy . . . Social Security continues to work efficiently 
and effectively . . . Social Security does work.'' Where has Mr. Deets 
been? What does this man read? Has he read the trustees' report? Has he 
read this impressive document that has looked into this on an 
actuarially sound basis? Has he read the recommendations and 
conclusions that the whole thing is to come a cropper, that the very 
people he represents are going to be hurt badly unless we do something 
now, that we are heading for a train wreck?

  I think maybe Mr. Deets should spend less time trying to collect dues 
from people and take a little time to read the trustees report on the 
future of Social Security and join us in a responsible effort which the 
trustees say will hurt less if we do it now, but is going to hurt 
greatly if we wait until later.
  We cannot afford to wait. We cannot afford to pretend there is 
nothing wrong when everybody knows that is not the case. The changes we 
make

[[Page S2311]]

now could be phased in over a period of time and would have minimal 
impact. But if we wait and follow Mr. Deets' advice, keep our head in 
the sand and pretend that there is no problem, it is going to come as a 
great shock and a great surprise to the 33 million people who rely on 
their AARP mailings when they find out that their own organization has 
led them down a blind ally, their own organization has sold them out, 
sold out to a political process that goes against the very best 
interests of their members.
  Mr. President, I am disappointed by the action of the President. I am 
disappointed but not surprised. As a recent Washington Post editorial 
stated, you believe this White House ``at your peril.'' With the AARP 
driving the politics and the decisions of the President and his party, 
I am sure we can anticipate even more fear mongering on entitlement 
reform. But ultimately we are going to have to find solutions to these 
problems. I fear that this difficult process will be made even more 
complicated by an unprincipled and a timid administration and a 
deceitful and self-serving American Association of Retired Persons.
  Mr. President, with that I yield the floor.
  Mr. CHAFEE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  (The remarks of Mr. Chafee pertaining to the introduction of S. 445 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, there are several matters I would like to 
bring up, if I could. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning 
business so as not to interrupt the flow of the debate on the pending 
matter.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________