[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 11, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H5492-H5493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    BROKEN REPUBLICAN PROMISES TO SAVE MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY 
                               SURPLUSES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2001, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, it all depends upon how we define a 
surplus, and for quite a few years around here I was one of the Members 
who advocated that we should not be including the excess taxes charged 
to Social Security or to people for Social Security, FICA taxes, as 
part of the so-called surplus, spending it and replacing it with IOUs.
  In fact, I found considerable support over the last few years on the 
Republican side of the aisle on this issue, which I found encouraging. 
In fact, the House Republicans have voted nearly unanimously seven 
times, seven times since 1999, to protect both the Social Security and 
Medicare surpluses by creating a lock box. We put it in a lock box, not 
once, not twice, seven times, seven padlocks, many different 
combinations.
  Social Security and Medicare trust fund surpluses are safe. They 
would be reserved to pay the benefits in the future. In fact, as 
recently as July 11th, House majority leader, the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Armey), said we must understand that it is inviolate, you might 
have trouble following this but I will get to the point, to intrude 
either against Social Security or Medicare, and if that means foregoing 
or, as it were, paying for tax cuts then we will do that. He said he 
wasn't going to spend the money, and in fact, they might forego tax 
cuts in order to not break into the lock box.
  Good news. Well, that was July 11. It is now September. How much 
things have changed.
  The new Congressional Budget Office estimates, the Congressional 
Budget Office is headed by a Republican appointee, says that the 
surplus for the next nine years is 2.2 trillion, T, trillion, not 
billion, not million, trillion dollars less than projected last May. 
Remember the rosy scenario, oh, pass the tax cuts today and do not 
worry about it, there will be so much money, be floating in money, we 
can still maintain the integrity of the lock box, Social Security, 
Medicare and we can increase military spending and we can do all these 
things and there will still be surplus. In fact, the gentleman from

[[Page H5493]]

 North Carolina (Mr. Ballenger) that preceded me in the well talked 
about the surplus.
  The surplus he talked about is the Social Security trust fund. It is 
raised through an unfair, flat, regressive tax capped at $80,000 a year 
income. So the rich people are not putting in a penny over the little 
bit they pay on their first $80,000 of income. Most working families 
are paying more in Social Security taxes than they are in income taxes 
to the Federal Government. In fact, many working Americans are not 
getting back a rebate because of that fact, but they do not mind too 
much because they know their money is going in the lock box created.
  Now, what is in the lock box? Oops, well, not much money. There is 
something in here, though. Good, I owe you $9 billion, signed Secretary 
Paul O'Neill, Secretary of the Treasury for George Bush, President of 
the United States.
  So it seems that they are going back on their promise, are they not? 
We were going to have a lock box. They made a great show of voting on 
the lock box in the Clinton administration, but now with the Bush 
administration all things are changed.
  It really doesn't matter whether we spend the Social Security 
surplus, that money intended for the trust fund for future retirees, 
today because the administration changed. Nothing else changed. We had 
all those votes to create the lock box, but suddenly the lock box isn't 
so important anymore, not as important as tax cuts.
  Make no mistake, the tax cuts are the thing that are putting us in 
the hole. The Federal Government is borrowing, borrowing the money to 
send out those rebate checks which are against this year's estimated 
surplus which does not exist but is calculated on your last year's 
income. Follow that? Okay. What it means is cash the check quickly. It 
might bounce soon.
  So this is the bizarre situation we find ourselves in. The Republican 
majority after touting lock boxes and saving Social Security and 
Medicare for so long, in their rush to please their wealthy benefactors 
and pass a massive $2 trillion tax cut, particularly heavily oriented 
to those who earn over $273,000 a year and estates over $5 billion, 
they have already frittered away the surplus, and things look even more 
bleak for the future.
  They are depositing IOUs back into the Social Security trust fund, 
spending the money today, now that it is time to talk about the 
possibility of, oh, my God, now they are in panic, some people are 
pointing this out, mindless, across-the-board cuts. First, let us jack 
up the military spending by 10 percent, then we will cut it by 3 
percent and we might get back to putting something in the lock box. I 
doubt it. It is fuzzy math.

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