[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 25, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY FIRST ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. PATRICK J. KENNEDY

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 25, 2003

  Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
a bill that will correct the mistake that the House made last week when 
it voted to repeal the estate tax. Not only that, but the Save Social 
Security First Act will also restore some credibility to the commitment 
that both parties in this House have made to safeguarding the Social 
Security trust fund.
  In March of 2001, Speaker Hastert said, ``We are going to wall off 
Social Security trust funds.'' Two years later, our fiscal stability 
has eroded and we are racing towards half-trillion dollar annual 
deficits. Rather than protecting it, we are now dipping into the Social 
Security trust fund to finance another round of tax cuts for 
millionaires and billionaires. The wealthy few in our country are 
benefitting at the expense of the millions of seniors who currently 
rely on Social Security and the millions of American workers who will 
rely on it in the future.
  The question is a simple one, Mr. Speaker. Would you rather add an 
additional $588 billion to the Social Security trust fund over the next 
20 years, or give that money to families whose wealth already dwarfs 
the lifetime earnings of many Americans? The answer seems obvious. I 
believe that this House should keep its promise to protect Social 
Security and stop sacrificing the needs of the vast majority of 
Americans for the benefit of the privileged few. It is for these 
reasons that I have introduced the Save Social Security First Act.
  The act will accelerate estate tax relief while not entirely 
repealing the tax. It raises the exemption amount to $3 million per 
person, or $6 million per couple, beginning in 2004, and dedicates all 
estate tax revenue to the Social Security trust fund. Many of those who 
voted to repeal the estate tax last week argued that the tax unjustly 
forces small business owners to sell their business in order to pay the 
tax rather than be able to pass the business on to the next generation. 
According to a Treasury Department study, however, this is very rarely 
the case. In only 1.6 percent of taxable estates did a family-owned 
business comprise at least half of the value of the estate, and that 
was with an exemption just one-fifth of what is proposed by the bill I 
have introduced. We do not need to fully repeal the tax in order to 
keep it from unfairly impacting small businesses.
  Under the Save Social Security First Act, only the truly wealthy will 
remain subject to the estate tax, while 99.5 percent of families will 
be exempt from it. The whole country will benefit from the $588 billion 
that this bill will put into Social Security over the next 20 years. 
Over the next 75 years, it will make up for almost one quarter of the 
projected shortfall in Social Security funding.
  Mr. Speaker, it's about time that we got our priorities straight. 
This bill says that even if you feel that fully repealing the estate 
tax is a priority, it is not a higher priority than ensuring the 
solvency of Social Security. It says that we should be committed to the 
growing number of seniors in our country. It says that we should be 
committed to today's workers who are depending on Social Security for 
their retirement. And it says that we should be committed to our 
children, who should not be forced to foot the bill of our fiscal 
irresponsibility.
  I strongly urge this House to join me in supporting the Save Social 
Security First Act. We have two futures to choose from: on the one 
hand, we can make a tiny sliver of the wealthiest people in the country 
even wealthier. On the other, we can help save a program that will 
benefit untold millions of Americans for generations to come. This 
should be one of the easiest choices that we have made in a long time, 
and I hope to see my colleagues on both sides of the aisle join me to 
support this important bill.

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