[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 124 (Thursday, September 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE SURPLUS BELONGS TO SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, Social Security is the single most 
successful domestic program in our Nation's history, we all know that. 
It is a long-term financial bedrock for this country's elderly, for 
disabled, hardworking American families. Two-thirds of our elderly 
depend on Social Security for over half of their income. Social 
Security keeps 800,000 children out of poverty every year.
  Mr. Speaker, right now Social Security is under attack. What we have 
here is a situation where the Republican leadership of this House wants 
to raid the Social Security Trust Fund in order to provide an $80 
billion tax break.
  I am for tax cuts, Democrats are for tax cuts, but let me just say 
this to my colleagues:
  If it was not for the Social Security Trust Fund, what people have to 
understand, we would not be showing a budget surplus. The surplus 
belongs to Social Security. It is not a spare cookie in the bottom of 
the jar just for the taking, and that is why Democrats are insisting 
that we should put any budget surplus toward the trust fund; let us not 
raid it.

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