[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 31, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RESTORE THE PUBLIC'S TRUST

  (Mrs. LINDA SMITH of Washington asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. LINDA SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, as public servants, we 
are commissioned to be guardians of the public trust, but each year the 
public's trust steadily declines. And why? Because too often 
Presidents, the new ones, and the new Congresses, go on with practices 
that are established by the old Congresses that violate that trust.
  Take, for example, the Social Security Trust Fund. Every year we 
borrow from that trust fund, and we do not have the money to pay it 
back. We give that to the next generation.
  This year, the President's proposal not only says we should borrow 
this year, but for the next 3 years, for a so-called balanced budget. 
He takes $101 billion out of people's retirements and spends it on his 
programs and says, isn't that great? And now he is traveling the world 
giving out foreign aid to other countries that he has taken out of 
people's retirement funds.
  It is time to restore the trust in America to trust funds and stop 
this stealing.

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