[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 22 (Tuesday, March 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H669]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WORKING TOGETHER TO FIX SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I would like to make some 
comments on Social Security, a very important program.
  A couple speakers ago, the minority leader suggested that the 
President and Republicans come up with their Social Security proposal, 
I suspect so that it could be criticized.
  I would hope that the minority leader and the Democrats would come up 
with their solution for Social Security. To pretend that there is no 
problem and nothing needs to be changed is not facing up to the fact 
that the Social Security system is going to run out of money.
  Social Security started in 1934. It was predicated on the fact that 
there would be an increasing number of workers paying their taxes into 
Social Security that is used to pay benefits for existing retirees. I 
think that point needs to be stressed, that it is now and always has 
been a system where existing workers pay their taxes and that tax money 
goes out to existing retirees.
  Back in 1940, there were 38 workers paying in their Social Security 
tax for every one retiree. Today, there are three workers paying in 
their Social Security tax for every retiree. The suggestion by the 
actuaries is that by 2025 there will only be two workers paying in 
their Social Security tax for every retiree. It will be very expensive 
for those workers.
  So what Congress and the President have done in the past, every time 
that we are short of money we have increased the taxes on workers and 
reduced benefits. Let us not put ourselves in that predicament again.
  One way to do it is not to suggest that this is just up to the 
President of the United States. This is the Congress. This is the House 
of Representatives. We should be working together on both sides of the 
aisle to look at the problem with a program that has been so successful 
and so important since it was instigated in 1934.
  The way we accomplish something to solve this problem is facing up to 
the fact that it is insolvent; the fact that there is an unfunded 
liability, according to the actuaries, of $9 trillion right now; that 
the money in the trust fund right now, money that the government has 
borrowed from the surplus coming in from Social Security and spent on 
other programs or other responsibilities of the General fund, is now 
$1.2 trillion, again compared to the $9 trillion unfunded liability. We 
would have to come up with $9 trillion today and invest it to 
accommodate what we are going to be short over the next 75 years in 
terms of meeting current-day promises on Social Security payments.
  The average retiree today is receiving a return of 1.7 percent 
interest on the money they and their employer put into Social Security. 
We can do better than that.
  Nobody is talking about privatizing Social Security. None of the 
proposals suggest that government is not going to be ultimately 
responsible for paying those Social Security benefits. But the way to 
accomplish this, the way to move ahead, is not by demagoguery. I know 
it is tempting in an election year to try to put down and scold and 
scare seniors that one party is better than the other.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, let me say that I would hope both the 
Democrats, the minority leader and the majority party in this House and 
the same with the Senate work together to come up with proposals to 
solve the problem, rather than demagoguing it.

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