[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 104 (Friday, July 26, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S7417]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I want to take the floor for a moment or 
two to commend the able Senator from New Jersey for the statement that 
was just made about Social Security privatization, and for focusing on 
this absolutely outrageous statement made by the White House Press 
Secretary earlier this week. To terrify people with that kind of 
statement is absolutely irresponsible. I think it is very important 
that be put on the Record.
  I thank the Senator from New Jersey for the analysis and focus he is 
bringing to this issue of privatizing Social Security. It is an 
extraordinarily important issue. I agree with the Senator that it ought 
to be fully debated.
  The President and his advisers apparently have not abandoned their 
bad idea of privatizing Social Security. If that is the case, then we 
need to lay out in front of the country exactly what is involved. The 
biggest thing involved, in my judgment, is the very point which the 
able Senator from New Jersey was making just a few moments ago; that 
is, the question of the guaranteed benefit.
  Under the existing Social Security system, we seek to provide an 
assured benefit level in Social Security. So when someone stops 
working, and they start drawing their Social Security, they are told, 
you will get X amount of dollars per month in your Social Security 
check. In addition, of course, we also provide for a cost-of-living 
adjustment in that check.

  So the beneficiary, in planning their retirement, and their standard 
of living under retirement, knows that each month the Social Security 
check will come, and it will be in this amount--a guaranteed benefit--
and that they can count on that.
  The privatization, first of all, undercuts the guaranteed benefit 
concept, and carries with it the risk that your monthly benefit check 
may be far less. It also carries the risk it may be far more. But who 
knows? Who knows?
  Can you imagine the trauma of senior citizens all across the country 
if the amount of their Social Security check had been linked to the 
movement of the stock market in recent months? You would have some 
elderly person, for whom Social Security is their only source of 
income, reading stories about the drop in the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 
and all the rest of it, thinking to themselves: How much is going to be 
in my next monthly check? How am I just going to get through the 
necessities of life if the amount of my Social Security check is going 
to drop, because of it now being tied to the movements in the market?
  Any responsible discussion about this has been that you would have an 
add-on over and above Social Security that might then be placed in the 
market, so at least you would guarantee to the person sort of the 
minimum retirement upon which they could absolutely plan and absolutely 
count. And that is what needs to be laid out and debated.
  The Senator from New Jersey has pinpointed that concern. I commend 
him for doing it. It is very important. People need to focus on this 
issue. We need to have this debate. We ought not to be in a situation 
where the White House Press Secretary can make the kind of statements 
he is making, seek to undercut confidence in the system, and then use 
that as an argument for some fundamental change which would jeopardize 
the guaranteed benefit aspect of the Social Security system which is an 
extremely important part of it.
  I thank the Senator for the excellent job he is doing in bringing 
this issue to the attention of the Nation.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sarbanes). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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