[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 2, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to pass along some 
comments that my mother, Nancy Lampson, made to me after church just 
recently. She, like millions of other senior citizens, is worried about 
the future of Medicare and Social Security. She is afraid that it will 
not be there for me and my brothers and sisters.
  My mother knows that saving Social Security and Medicare is not just 
good for retirement security for her. She knows it is also good for me, 
her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.
  Why? Because putting aside 62 percent of the surplus for Social 
Security and another 15 percent for Medicare will also reduce the 
national debt and reduce the billions of dollars we waste each year on 
interest payments. Winnowing down the national debt will be good for my 
mother's great grandchildren.
  Currently, the United States of America spends nearly as much on 
interest payments as it does on national defense. If we wisely invest 
the surplus in Social Security and Medicare today, we can reduce our 
interest payments from 14 percent of the budget in 1999 to 2 percent in 
2014.
  Investing in Social Security and Medicare will not only reduce the 
debt but also will lower interest rates, boost the economic growth, and 
increase the financial security of working families. You do not have to 
be a Harvard economist to know that this makes good sense to the 
American people.
  So, on behalf of my mother and the millions of Americans we 
represent, I urge all of you to invest in the present and the future by 
investing the budget surplus in Social Security and Medicare--it makes 
good sense for America.

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