[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 30 (Thursday, March 8, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2056-S2057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE LOCKBOX

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to strongly 
support the Conrad amendment that is before us which would create a 
lockbox for Social Security and for Medicare.
  As a member of the Budget Committee, I have watched and listened to 
the proposals of the administration as they relate not only to the tax 
cut before us but the spending priorities. I listened on the evening of 
the State of the Union to a variety of proposals, all of which sounded 
very good. In fact, in some cases sitting there knowing our fiscal 
constraints, it sounded too good to be true.
  I find as a member of the Budget Committee looking at the details now 
that, in fact, it was too good to be true, and the budget that has been 
proposed proposes to use all of the Medicare trust fund and a portion 
of the Social Security trust fund in order to balance this budget. 
There is still a question about whether or not it adds up.
  If we proceed as this body and the House of Representatives voted 
last year to protect Social Security and Medicare to keep it out of the 
revenue stream for spending proposals, if we support the lockbox 
notion, which I hope we will--again, it passed this body by 60 votes 
last year, and I am hopeful it will do the same this year--if we pull 
those dollars out and protect them as the people of the country expect 
us to do, not only the seniors but the baby boomers who will be 
retiring in large numbers beginning in about 11 years, and also my son 
and daughter who are young people, can look forward to the future 
expecting us to protect those funds. We find that the President's 
proposal for his tax cut takes up literally the entire discretionary 
dollars available to us except for Social Security and Medicare of over 
the next 10 years. That is assuming we believe the projections, and we 
certainly hope they are true for the dollars that have been projected 
in surplus.

  But we all know, as Chairman Greenspan indicated, that these are 
educated guesses.
  Given the fact that if you protect Social Security and Medicare, the 
President's tax proposal takes every dollar of discretionary income 
left, rather than the next 10 years and being able to balance that with 
some dollars for investments in education, infrastructure, prescription 
drug coverage for Medicare, and balancing that with an important tax 
cut for middle-class families, it doesn't add up. The administration 
has chosen to dip into Medicare and Social Security in order to be able 
to provide dollars for important investments in the American people's 
priorities in terms of education and other areas.
  If you protect Social Security and Medicare, the dollars are not 
there for education.
  The President has said we are going to say the Medicare trust fund 
doesn't exist anymore. We heard in front of the Budget Committee from 
our new Treasury Secretary, as well as the Director of Management and 
Budget, that they believe there really isn't a trust fund; that, in 
fact, there isn't a surplus in Medicare, even though every year we get 
reports regarding the solvency of the trust fund and the date at which 
it will become insolvent, and the fact that the date has been growing 
further into the future because of the good economy.
  Now we fear there is, in fact, no trust fund. Those reports, I guess, 
meant nothing before.
  In reality, there is a Medicare trust fund. We know that Part A has 
been an important part of the solvency of Medicare, and this trust fund 
is critical in maintaining and protecting the health care benefits for 
the seniors and future generations in our country.
  I urge my colleagues to send a very strong message to the White House 
and to the American people that we intend to keep the promises of 
Medicare and Social Security, and to lock away the Medicare trust fund 
along with every penny of Social Security so that we will keep those as 
a separate promise and protect them for our seniors, for our families, 
and for future generations.
  Without this lockbox, we will find ourselves in the situation of 
seeing the budget continue down the road with the full intention of 
using the entire Medicare trust fund in order to balance the books, and 
a portion of Social Security in order to balance the books.
  That is not in the best interest of the American people. We can do 
better than that. We can design a budget that protects Social Security 
and Medicare and strengthens it for the future, provide a real tax cut 
for middle-class families, small businesses, and family farmers in this 
country, and also pay down the debt so the interest rates our citizens 
and businesses are paying for will continue to go down, and at the same 
time invest in the priority that President Bush has articulated well--
and I agree with--which is the question of education and investing in 
the future for our children.
  This budget is about more than numbers. It is about our values as 
American people. In times when we have choices that we can make because 
of projected surpluses, the real task for each of us is what will be 
our priority? What will the choices be when we can make choices?
  I strongly hope one of the choices made by this Congress and 
administration is not to use the entire Medicare trust fund to fund 
other purposes in the budget; that we will join together on a 
bipartisan basis, as has been done in the past when Republicans and 
Democrats joined together to support locking away the Social Security 
trust fund and the Medicare trust fund so that they are outside the 
budget stream and are protected for now and the future.

[[Page S2057]]

  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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