[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 21, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H2668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REPUBLICAN PLAN TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Ms. DELAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve to know what 
the Republican Congress and the President are going to do to Social 
Security. They have proposed a vague plan, a plan they say is 
voluntary, that would create individual accounts for those who choose 
to invest a portion of that money in the stock market. They say that 
these accounts will earn retirees a higher rate of return.
  But what they do not tell the voters and they do not tell the 
American seniors about is that changing to this new system will result 
in cutting benefits, cutting benefits for Social Security retirees 
across the board.
  So even though the accounts themselves may be technically voluntary, 
the benefit cuts are very much mandatory; and if a retiree does not 
want to risk his or her benefits in an increasingly shaky stock market, 
fine, but his or her guaranteed monthly check will not equal what it is 
today. If they have a higher rate of return on their account than the 
government will allow, what they do not tell us is that in fact the 
government is going to tax that rate of return at 100 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, the simple fact is that the Republican plan cuts 
benefits for today's retirees, those in the future, and puts them at 
risk. Let us not let them do it.

                          ____________________