[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 25 (Thursday, February 11, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONSENSUS IS 62 PERCENT OF BUDGET SHOULD GO TO SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. WEINER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WEINER. Madam Speaker, there is now reaching a point of consensus 
that 62 percent of the surplus in the budget should go to save Social 
Security and preserve it at least to the year 2055. With God's good 
graces, we will all be here to enjoy that extended life of Social 
Security.
  What the President has also proposed is equally important, perhaps 
even more so, and that is that 15 percent, almost $700 billion, be put 
away also to help improve Medicare today, and that includes extending 
prescription drug benefits to seniors.
  As much as we have heard about the proposals for tax cuts, an across-
the-board tax cut will not get an average senior even through a single 
year covering their prescription drug costs. Yet, on the other the 
other side of the aisle, we hear nothing about improving Medicare for 
today's seniors. Instead, 37 percent of their plan goes to a tax cut, 1 
percent goes to defense, and nothing else goes for things like 
prescription drugs.
  My colleagues, with the cost of living adjustment for seniors this 
year being only 1.2 percent, we need to recognize that today's seniors, 
not those a generation from now, need prescription drugs covered.

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