[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 163 (Wednesday, November 17, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H12115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DEMOCRATS CREATED SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. CROWLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I was listening very closely to the 
comments of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle this morning. 
I felt compelled to come down here again to once again, unfortunately, 
to those who watch C-SPAN on a regular basis, to give another history 
quiz, another history lesson.
  Mr. Speaker, who was it back in 1935 that created Social Security? 
The answer is a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress. Only 
one Republican stood up and voted with the majority at that time to not 
recommit Social Security. A motion that would have destroyed and killed 
Social Security as we know it today. A gentleman by the name of Frank 
Crowther from my home State of New York stood up against the tide of 
his own party and said, ``No, I will not destroy Social Security.''
  Mr. Speaker, Social Security was created because over 40 percent of 
the population at that time in our country were dying in poverty. They 
had nowhere else to go. They were dying in poverty.
  Social Security has enabled young families to save, send their kids 
to school, to college. It has meant the wealth to this country, and now 
we expect the Republican side of the aisle to save it? Give me a break.

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