[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H665]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IF WE WORK TOGETHER, WE CAN STRENGTHEN SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

  (Ms. STABENOW asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly support the 
President's proposal to take the overwhelming majority of the budget 
surplus and place it into the Social Security Trust Fund to protect 
Social Security and Medicare. We have begun the process of balancing 
the budget, but we have not yet completed it until we repay the Social 
Security Trust Fund and totally strengthen Medicare. We can do that 
under the President's proposal by taking the overwhelming majority, 80 
percent of the surplus, and putting it back towards strengthening 
Social Security and Medicare. That then allows us to take a small 
portion of the budget and to invest it in other critical needs such as 
defense preparedness and education.
  If we work together, we can strengthen Social Security and Medicare. 
We can pay down the debt, which in the long run will lower interest 
rates and give a real tax cut to the middle class by lowering interest 
payments on mortgages, car payments, credit cards; and that is the way 
that we get more dollars back into people's pockets.

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