[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H508-H509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PROTECTING SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. ROGAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROGAN. Mr. Speaker, I was among hundreds of Republicans last 
month who stood and applauded President Clinton when he spoke in this 
Chamber I applauded because I thought he said that we should use any 
budget surplus to save ``Social Security first.'' That is why so many 
of us vigorously applauded a position we thought he was taking. 
However, I have gone back and looked at his speech. What he actually 
said was we should ``reserve'' every penny of the surplus until we 
``save'' Social Security.
  What does that mean? We find out from the President's budget recently

[[Page H509]]

submitted that it does not mean reserving the surplus for Social 
Security Trust Fund, because in the budget he presented, there is $100 
billion in new taxes, $100 billion in new spending, but nothing about 
putting the surplus into Social Security. In fact, his senior economic 
advisers later have said they don't know what ``reserving'' it means.
  Mr. Speaker, Mark Twain said everybody talks about the weather, but 
nobody does anything about it. This administration talks a good game 
about Social Security, but he hasn't done anything about it in his 
budget proposal. It would be nice if the President treated Social 
Security better than Mark Twain treated the weather.

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