[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H11684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        WE ARE NOT GOING TO RAID THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MINGE. Mr. Speaker, this week, Congress and the administration 
are struggling over how we handle the so-called end game with the 
Federal budget. Those of us here in the House of Representatives are a 
critical part of this end game negotiating process in the votes that it 
will take to pass the budget.
  One of the chief rallying cries that I hear from my colleagues is, we 
are not going to raid the Social Security Trust Fund. We are not going 
to raid the Social Security Trust Fund. We will not raid the Social 
Security Trust Fund. The phrase is repeated ad nauseam. But I challenge 
my colleagues to really accomplish what we have stated we intend to 
accomplish.

                              {time}  1930

  And the reason that I say this is that for many it is feared that we 
are only pandering to the misunderstandings and the naivete almost of 
the American public in claiming that we are not invading the Social 
Security Trust Fund to finance Federal expenditures.
  I would like to point out that claims that we will not invade the 
Social Security Trust Fund come from all quarters, but today I was 
amazed to see a letter signed by the leadership of this body, the 
Speaker, the majority leader, the majority whip, and the conference 
chair on the other side of the aisle that included a sentence to this 
effect: ``We will not schedule any piece of legislation on the House 
floor that spends one penny of Social Security.''
  I would like to contrast this with an article in the Wall Street 
Journal a week ago Friday that reports that the Congressional Budget 
Office estimates that the GOP spending bills are already over the 
targets by $31 billion, and that if we look at the report from the 
Congressional Budget Office, we will see that the GOP spends $17 
billion of the Social Security surplus.
  What is most troubling to me about this is the duplicity that is 
involved. We are breaching the faith of the American public. It is 
absolutely wrong that we resort to smoke and mirrors and gimmicks to 
claim that we are not going into the Social Security Trust Fund. It is 
all together too familiar. We heard all of these statements during the 
Reagan administration and during the Bush administration when we had 
enormous deficits. And now that we are on the verge of balancing the 
budget without using Social Security, I think we have just as much an 
obligation to the American people to be candid, to be forthright, and 
not resort to smoke and mirrors and tricks.
  The Wall Street Journal article, which is up here, illustrates one of 
the problems that is involved, and that problem is picking and choosing 
what numbers are used to do the accounting. Anyone who has worked with 
certified public accountants understands accounting principles and a 
financial statement in terms of its integrity. And the integrity of 
that financial statement requires that generally accepted accounting 
principles must be consistently applied. That concept of consistent 
application is what has been violated by the leadership here in the 
House of Representatives by picking and choosing where the numbers come 
from, the Congressional Budget Office at one point, the Office of 
Management and Budget at another.
  This violates a fundamental rule in accounting, not consistently 
applying the accounting principles; or, in this case, the budget 
forecasting. Picking and choosing. And we should no more let the White 
House do that than let Members of our own body do that. We in Congress 
should stand square behind the principle that we insist that the budget 
forecasting process have integrity, and that we not claim that no such 
bill has been on the floor of the House when the Wall Street Journal 
has already reported that we have done it and when the Congressional 
Budget Office has already reported that we are $17 billion into the 
Social Security surplus.
  We must improve our practices if we are going to continue to have any 
credibility. We cannot have letters of the type that are circulating in 
this Chamber today. And, Mr. Speaker, I will submit this letter for the 
Record.


                                Congress of the United States,

                                 Washington, DC, November 8, 1999.
       Dear Colleague: Many of you are asking when we expect the 
     budget negotiations to be completed. We expect budget 
     negotiations to be complete when we have a balanced budget 
     that doesn't raid Social Security, doesn't raise taxes and 
     pays down the debt for the third year in a row.
       Earlier this year our conference committed to stop the 30-
     year raid on Social Security--and according to the 
     Congressional Budget Office, we have done that. The President 
     began the budget negotiations by taking a large step our way 
     and joining us in our commitment to lock away every penny of 
     Social Security. We're working with him in a bipartisan 
     fashion to protect retirement security.
       The key to the whole puzzle is protecting Social Security 
     and paying down debt. We will not schedule any piece of 
     legislation on the House floor that spends one penny of 
     Social Security. That said, we expect to adjourn for the year 
     when we've ensured that every penny of Social Security is 
     locked away.
       If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us 
     personally.
           Sincerely,
     J. Dennis Hastert,
       Speaker of the House.
     Dick Armey,
       Majority Leader.
     Tom DeLay,
       Majority Whip.
     J.C. Watts,
       Conference Chairman.

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