[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 11, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S5027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SOCIAL SECURITY LOCK BOX

  Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, twice, the Senate has failed to invoke 
cloture on the Social Security Lock Box. I am a cosponsor of this 
important amendment and I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in 
support for a Social Security lock box.
  For several years, Congress has taken all the money out of the Social 
Security Trust Fund and spent it on other programs. In fact, through 
the end of last year, Congress has taken over $730 billion out of the 
trust fund and spent it all on other programs.
  I believe that it is wrong to spend Social Security Trust Fund money 
on other programs. If a private corporation were to take money out of 
an employees' pension plan and spend it on something else, the 
executives of that corporation would, under Congress' own laws, be 
subject to prosecution and imprisonment. Why do we allow Congress to 
raid Social Security, the pension fund for all Americans?
  Each time our government takes money out of the Social Security Trust 
Funds, it incurs a debt to these funds. To date, the government has 
incurred total debts of over $730 billion to the Social Security Trust 
Funds. The debts owed to these funds are included in the calculation of 
our total national debt which now stands at roughly $5.5 trillion. This 
debt, along with the program's massive unfunded liabilities, will 
ultimately have to be paid by future taxpayers.
  The lock box proposal would ban Congress from spending Social 
Security Trust Fund monies on other programs (unless there is a super-
majority vote to do so). Those who oppose the lockbox proposal want to 
continue spending Social Security Trust Funds on other new and 
unrelated programs.
  While I believe that we need to take other steps to protect Social 
Security, I nevertheless believe that this lockbox provision is an 
important first step in ensuring the long-term fiscal health of our 
nation. By making it more difficult to spend Social Security Trust 
Funds on other programs, we will make it easier for ourselves to meet 
our obligation to Social Security in the future.

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