[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 16, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H1079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Chocola). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I think it is time for Congress 
and the President to be responsible. I object to the suggestion that 
somehow government can control the economy and decide whether it is a 
strong economy or there is good job growth. Government gets in the way 
every time.
  Let me suggest this, Mr. Speaker. If the best possible economic 
advisors could simply be taken to governments around the world, and 
with their advice the economy would be strong, job growth would be 
strong, every country in the world would hire the best possible 
economists to have a strong economy. The fact is we have a cyclical 
situation, and for the last several years we have had a worldwide slump 
in the economy. Europe is even having a more dangerous downturn. In 
terms of doing some of the things that we should do, and I would 
suggest, Mr. Speaker, that is government getting out of the way and not 
imposing rules and regulations and taxes that put our businesses at a 
competitive disadvantage to other businesses throughout the world. We 
should not be taxing our business in the United States 20 percent more 
than what other countries, our competitors, are charging their 
business. It means that we should not have all of these overzealous 
regulations to impose extra costs on our business that other countries 
do not have.
  The challenge for our kids and our grandkids is going to be huge. 
Overspending is part of that problem; but not dealing with the unfunded 
liabilities, not dealing with some of the huge challenges that are 
going to be faced by our kids and our grandkids is another area where 
Congress and the White House need to consider.
  I would like to bring to mind Social Security. We have known for the 
last 14 years that Social Security was facing tough times. We passed a 
Social Security Reform Act from the Greenspan Commission in 1983. We 
dramatically increased the taxes and reduced benefits. I bring this 
chart to the floor, Mr. Speaker, because I want to call to everyone's 
attention the danger of not doing something in this House and in the 
Senate and in the White House to correct the Social Security problem.
  Social Security is going broke. I just read an article, that it is no 
big deal because Social Security is not going to become insolvent 
technically until 2036, because that is how much money is in the trust 
funds; and if we pay that money back that government has borrowed, then 
there will not be any problem. But here is the problem and here is the 
situation, and we are looking for the actuary Social Security 
Commission report to come out next week.
  We are looking at a situation where by 2017 there will be less money 
coming in from Social Security taxes than is needed to pay benefits. 
What do we do then? We have got these IOUs that government has taken 
some of this extra money and spent it for other government 
expenditures; but that means we have either got to borrow more money or 
reduce benefits or increase taxes. I just want to report to my 
colleagues what government has done in the past.
  We started out with a Social Security tax of 1 percent on payroll. By 
1940, we decided that was not quite enough money; we raised it to 2 
percent on the first $3,000. By 1960, we were short of money again. We 
decided to raise that tax again to 6 percent on the first $4,800. By 
1980, we raised it again to 10.16 percent on the first $25,900. In the 
year 2000, 12.4 percent on the first $76,000. Now it is 12.4 percent on 
$89,000.
  So the dangers of doing nothing is that we increase taxes or reduce 
benefits. So I plead with my colleagues, stand up and do what is right. 
Do not demagogue somebody's suggestion of a bill by saying that person 
is going to ruin your Social Security so do not elect them.
  I would call, Mr. Speaker, on every voter at every chance they have 
to go to a forum of individuals running for Congress or for the 
Presidency, and ask what bill have they offered or signed on to that is 
going to make sure that Social Security stays solvent.
  I have done this since I first came to Congress 12 years ago, all 
scored by the Social Security Administration to keep Social Security 
solvent. I chaired a bipartisan Social Security task force of 
Republicans and Democrats. By the time we spent a year studying the 
problem, we all agreed that we needed to do something very quickly.
  Mr. Speaker, I call on the White House, the President, and Members of 
the House and the Senate to move ahead to make sure we save this 
important program.

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