[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 64 (Wednesday, May 5, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H2642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ANTIPOVERTY PROGRAMS FOR SENIORS RESULT IN POVERTY FOR FUTURE AMERICAN 
                                WORKERS

  (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, I see a lot of students in our 
gallery today. Mr. Speaker, I would like to report that our Social 
Security task force meeting yesterday that examined the consequences of 
doing nothing with Social Security resulted in the headline that 
antipoverty programs for seniors result in poverty for future American 
workers. We need to stop spending the Social Security Trust Fund for 
other government programs.
  Our taxes today are higher than they have ever been in most of our 
history, even through World War II. We have heard a lot of good 
government spending programs from the speakers this morning that would 
mean raiding the Social Security Trust Fund or increasing taxes.
  I just plead with my colleagues that if there are other good 
programs, they need to be justified on the basis of increasing taxes to 
pay for those programs or cutting other government spending to pay for 
those programs, but stop raiding the Social Security trust fund. We are 
already facing a $7\1/2\ trillion unfunded liability to maintain Social 
Security. We can't afford to continue to make the situation worse.

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