[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 27 (Tuesday, March 12, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ballenger). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 23, 2002, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) 
is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, to my great disappointment, President Bush, 
with the assistance of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) and other 
Republicans, are promoting Social Security privatization. This includes 
replacing all or part of the current Social Security program with a 
system of individual retirement accounts which diverts funds from 
Social Security, and thus transfers investment risks from a pool of all 
workers to the individual.
  All of the evidence shows that plans that allow people to divert part 
of their payroll taxes into private accounts makes Social Security's 
financing problems worse, not better. If some of the funds coming into 
Social Security over the next 75 years are diverted away from the 
program and into private accounts, then even more funds will be needed 
to pay for future Social Security benefits.
  For example, if 2 percentage points of the current 12.4 percent 
payroll tax were diverted into private accounts, then the Social 
Security trust funds would be exhausted in 2024, 14 years earlier than 
is now expected. In short, if funds are diverted away from the Social 
Security program as it currently exists, the changes that are already 
needed to return Social Security to fiscal soundness will have to be 
more severe.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress really should strengthen and protect a 
guaranteed benefit for seniors, for survivors, and for those with 
disabilities. Today, individual benefits are dependable and determined 
by law, not the whims of the stock market. This guarantee must not be 
changed, and Social Security must not, under any circumstances, be 
privatized.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight that the Republican budget 
uses Social Security to pay for large corporate tax breaks. For 
example, there are 136,559 American workers earning $30,000 a year who 
are paying 6.2 percent in FICA taxes. This money goes into the Social 
Security trust fund, from which the Republicans have now diverted, in 
the budget, $254 million in tax breaks to Enron; and that is Enron, I 
am talking about.
  Now, we know that Enron is bankrupt. Does that mean that the 
corporate tax break goes back to the trust fund where it belongs? No, 
not at all. It will go to other corporations instead. By using the 
Social Security trust fund to finance corporate tax breaks, Republicans 
are breaking the promise that the government makes to working families.
  Mr. Speaker, Social Security will continue to run an annual surplus 
this year and for the next 14 years. The program is solvent until 2037, 
at which point the trust fund will be exhausted and incoming revenues 
will meet only about three-quarters of benefit obligations.
  But privatization is sure to harm only the solvency of Social 
Security, which will mean that the current and future beneficiaries 
would face benefit cuts, survivors and the disabled would lose their 
secure pensions, and the retirement age would have to increase. 
Overall, the Social Security system that our seniors have depended on 
for over 65 years would quickly erode away.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not think that the American people realize what the 
effect of this Republican privatization proposal means. It means that 
it is going to be more difficult for Social Security to remain solvent 
over a longer period of time, and with these kinds of benefit cuts and 
increases in the age for eligibility, all these things will result from 
this Republican privatization proposal that they have put out there.
  It is amazing to me that they continue to talk about it, they want to 
bring it up in committee, and they want to bring it to the floor. I 
think ultimately their goal, obviously, will be to destroy Social 
Security. I want to stress, as a Democrat, that Democrats are not going 
to stand for throwing away Social Security. The American people should 
not stand for it.
  Democrats are going to be talking about this crazy privatization 
proposal by the Republicans for many days because we do not want it to 
happen, and we feel it is very important that we shed light on what is 
really going on here and what the Republicans have in mind with 
privatizing Social Security.

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