[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 46 (Tuesday, March 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE DEBT LIMIT

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, some people in Washington want to 
replace the current debt limit of this country with two limits, one for 
Treasury securities held by public and one for IOUs held by the Social 
Security and other trust funds. This is a bad idea that would send a 
message that debt owed to the trust funds is less important than debt 
owed to Wall Street.
  Some want the new statistic so they can brag about reducing the debt 
held by the public. That would be true, but it does not matter because 
total government debt would keep rising. A new statistic on debt held 
by the public would hide this fact.
  Others suggest that we could consider writing off the debt owed to 
the trust funds because that is just what government owes itself. That 
is wrong and that is dangerous.
  I ask my colleagues to fight against any proposal to change the 
status of the debt held by the Social Security Trust Fund.

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