[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 53 (Wednesday, May 3, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H2415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I want to just make a couple 
comments on Social Security. Mr. Speaker, I see a lot of young people 
joining us today. They are the generation at risk on Social Security. 
The actuaries of the Social Security Administration report that, if we 
do nothing with Social Security, we are either going to see taxes 
increase by 54 percent or benefits cut by 33 percent.
  The chart I have here is a pie chart of the Federal Government 
spending this year. The bottom green piece of that pie represents 
Social Security benefits and equals 20 percent of total Federal 
spending. The cost of senior programs continues to grow. The problem is 
exacerbated by the fact that people are living longer and therefore are 
drawing on Social Security longer. At the same time our birth rate is 
going down. The result is fewer workers paying payroll tax to finance 
higher benefit costs.
  That leads us to a predicament where we are going in the red on 
Social Security. This year, with the Presidential race, it is an 
appropriate time to discuss Social Security, to get into the details of 
how we are really going to solve this problem and how we are really 
going to save this very important program.

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