[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, every American contributes to Social 
Security, hoping one day that that investment will help him or her to 
retire comfortably. We expect and hope that those dollars will one day 
come back to us with interest.
  For generations, this program has worked fairly well, but we now have 
a younger generation that is not so confident about the Social Security 
system. Most young people in their 20s with whom I speak do not count 
on getting a dime from Social Security when they retire, and they know 
how much better their own investments perform compared to the low rates 
of return earned by the Social Security Trust Fund.
  Mr. Speaker, the Social Security system is a good program, millions 
of Americans depend on it; but it is time that we allowed Americans to 
invest a small portion of their FICA taxes into an authorized group of 
funds, like a 401(k) or a pension plan, an individual retirement 
account, to get the benefit of compound interest. It is time we made 
some changes, reform that will save and strengthen Social Security in 
the long run.

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