[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 124 (Thursday, September 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7928]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SAVING SOCIAL SECURITY AND LOWERING THE NATIONAL DEBT

  (Mr. KIND asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, today the Committee on Ways and Means is going 
to consider an $80 billion tax cut, and supporters are admitting that 
we will use part of the so-called budget surplus to pay for it.
  There are three things that the people in America get that some 
people here in this Chamber just do not get:
  First, there is no real budget surplus, not unless you want to raid 
the Social Security trust fund, not unless you want to collect payroll 
taxes from working families and transfer that money into the pockets of 
other people in this country.
  Secondly, this tax package not only spends the Social Security trust 
fund, but it also prevents us from starting to pay back the $5.5 
trillion national debt.
  Finally, there is no guarantee that any of this so-called surplus is 
going to materialize given the international financial crisis that we 
are in today.
  This tax cut is wrong for our seniors, it is wrong for our children, 
and supporters just do not get it. We must protect Social Security, we 
must start paying back the national debt and we must oppose fiscally 
irresponsible election-year tax cuts that are not paid for honestly.

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