[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 20, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1007]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROPOSED BUDGET OPENS SOCIAL SECURITY LOCKBOX
(Mrs. THURMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
Mrs. THURMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about Social Security
and the President's budget. As we all know, the budget resolution is
going to come to the House today, and I think it is very important that
we highlight what the budget will do to Social Security.
Not too long ago, I stood up here with over 400 of my Democratic and
Republican colleagues and voted for a lockbox for Social Security. We
made a promise to the American people that we would not spend any
Social Security dollars on anything but Social Security.
But, Mr. Speaker, that is just what the Republican budget resolution
does. It spends $1.6 trillion of Social Security dollars to fund other
things like the tax cuts. That is not my analysis, that is
Congressional Budget Office analysis. Instead, we should be doing
something to address the impending baby-boomer retirement.
I invite my Republican colleagues to sit down with myself and the
rest of the Democrats to develop a sound plan for the future of Social
Security and the rest of the budget. We need a plan that preserves
Social Security, not one that uses the money to fund other agenda
items.
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