[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1468-E1469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 1, 1999

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the attention of my 
colleagues to a resolution on Social Security. The following was agreed 
upon by both houses of the Vermont General Assembly on the 13th of May, 
1999.
  I call the attention of my colleagues to this resolution and submit 
the resolution to the Congressional Record for their benefit.

                               J.R.H. 113


  Joint resolution requesting congress to protect and preserve Social 
                                Security

       Offered by: Representatives Corren of Burlington, Aswad of 
     Burlington, Bouricius of Burlington, Darrow of Newfane, 
     Darrow of Dummerston, Hingtgen of Burlington, Jordan of 
     Middlesex, Keenan of St. Albans City, Kreitzer of Rutland 
     City, Nuovo of Middlebury, Smith of Sudbury, Sullivan of 
     Burlington, Sweetser of Essex, Valsangiacomo of Barre City, 
     Vinton of Colchester, Wheeler of Burlington and Zuckerman of 
     Burlington.
       Whereas, the purpose of Social Security is to provide a 
     strong, simple and efficient form of basic insurance against 
     the adversities of old age, disability and dependency, and
       Whereas, for 60 years Social Security has provided a stable 
     platform of retirement, disability and survivor annuity 
     benefits to protect working Americans and their dependents, 
     and
       Whereas, the costs to administer Social Security are less 
     than one percent of the benefits delivered, and
       Whereas, the American and world economies continue to 
     encounter periods of high uncertainty and volatility that 
     make it as important as ever to preserve a basic and 
     continuing safety net of protections guaranteed by our 
     society's largest guarantor of risk, the federal government, 
     and
       Whereas, Social Security affords protections to rich and 
     poor alike and no citizen, no matter how well-off today, can 
     foretell tomorrow's adversities, and
       Whereas, average life expectancies are increasing and 
     people are commonly living into their 80's and 90's, making 
     it more important than ever that each of us be fully 
     protected by defined retirement benefits, and
       Whereas, medical scientists are continually developing new 
     ways to maintain and enhance the lives of people with severe 
     disabilities, thus making it more important that each of us 
     to be protected against the risk of dependency, 
     institutionalization and impoverishment, and

[[Page E1469]]

       Whereas, the lives of wage earners and their spouses are 
     seldom coterminous; one often outlives the other by decades, 
     making it crucial to preserve a secure base of protection for 
     children and other family members dependent on a wage earner 
     who may die or become disabled, and
       Whereas, Social Security, in current form, reinforces 
     family cohesiveness and enhances the value of work in our 
     society, and
       Whereas, Congress currently has proposals to shift a 
     portion of Social Security contributions from insurance to 
     personal investment accounts for each wage earner, and
       Whereas, Social Security, our largest and most fundamental 
     insurance system, cannot fulfill its protective function if 
     it is splintered into individualized stock accounts and must 
     create and manage millions of small risk-bearing investments 
     out of a stream of contributions intended as insurance, and
       Whereas, private accounts cannot be substituted for Social 
     Security without eroding basic protections for working 
     families, since such protections, to be strong, must be 
     insulated from economic uncertainty and be backed by the 
     entity best capable of spreading risk, the federal 
     government, and
       Whereas, the diversion of contributions to private 
     investment accounts would dramatically increase financial 
     shortfalls to the Social Security trust fund and require 
     major reductions in the defined benefits upon which millions 
     of Americans depend; and
       Whereas, to administer 150 million separate investment 
     accounts would require a larger bureaucracy, and the 
     resulting expense and the cost of converting each account to 
     an annuity upon retirement would consume much of the profit 
     or exacerbate the loss realized by each participant, and
       Whereas, the question of whether part of the Social 
     Security Trust Fund should be diversified into investments 
     other than government bonds so that, while still invested 
     collectively at low expense, returns may be increased, thus 
     enhancing the capacity of the fund to meet its obligations to 
     pay benefits while spreading the risk across the entire 
     spectrum of Social Security participants, is entirely 
     different from that of splintering its millions of accounts, 
     and
       Whereas, creating an array of winners and losers would be 
     contrary to the basic principles of insurance and risk 
     distribution, thus defeating the purpose of this part of our 
     retirement system, and
       Whereas, Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code to 
     provide a full menu of provisions that enables working 
     Americans and their employers to voluntarily contribute to 
     tax-sheltered accounts that are open to the opportunities and 
     exposed to the risks of investment markets, diverting Social 
     Security contributions to private accounts duplicates 
     existing programs, and
       Whereas, such recently created systems now cover half of 
     American families, now therefore be it
       Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives:
       That the General Assembly respectfully and strongly urges 
     Congress not to enact laws that might tend to diminish or 
     undermine a unified and stable Social Security system, and be 
     it further
       Resolved: That laws to encourage workers and their 
     employers to save or invest for retirement should supplement 
     and not substitute for the basic benefits of Social Security 
     insurance that are vital to American working families, and be 
     it further
       Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a 
     copy of this resolution to the President of the United States 
     Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the 
     United States and each member of the Vermont Congressional 
     Delegation.

     

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