[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 25, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONOR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the theme for my remarks tonight is honor 
thy father and thy mother. The Congressional Budget Office has 
confirmed, and I might say they are nonpartisan, that the projected 
budget deficit for this year for our country will be over $368 billion, 
not even counting the additional $80 billion that will be added to that 
when bills come before this Congress for additional funding for Iraq 
and Afghanistan. Though these dollars literally are coming from the 
Social Security Trust Fund itself, the Congressional Budget Office 
noted that last year was the largest deficit in the history of our 
Nation, $412 billion, is the reason that the dollar value of currency 
is dropping. In fact, if we add up the last 3 years, we have the 
largest budget deficit in the history of the Republic.
  When President Bush came into office, there was a $5.6 trillion 
surplus. In fact, I thought it was rather funny at the time, Alan 
Greenspan was starting to get worried that we might actually pay our 
bills. He was a little uncomfortable that maybe the bond market would 
not be completely happy. What would we do if we paid all our bills?
  But now we have a $2.6 trillion deficit. That is a reversal of nearly 
$3 trillion. It is obvious this administration and their allies in the 
Congress cannot handle the pursestrings of this Nation.
  The very same people who brought us this fiscal train wreck, which is 
getting worse, are now proposing radical surgery on Social Security. 
Nothing President Bush has attempted to date, not even his incessant 
effort to shift the tax burden off the shoulders of the rich onto the 
middle class, is as brazen and audacious as his misguided efforts to 
try to gut Social Security.
  There is no crisis in Social Security. Repeat, there is no crisis in 
Social Security. There is only a crisis in the Bush administration's 
handling of the budget. Why would anyone trust the Bush administration 
on anything regarding Social Security, seeing that they are a miserable 
failure in terms of the management of the account of the people of the 
United States?
  Social Security is the most successful domestic program in the modern 
history of our Nation. Approximately 45 million Americans receive their 
Social Security insurance benefits and disability benefits. Just over 7 
million of those are disability recipients. In the State that I am 
from, Ohio, 1,922,406 individuals receive Social Security insurance 
benefits and 208,000 disability benefits.
  We do not know what is going to happen to our families. One out of 
five families in this country are going to have an unforeseen happening 
that will require eligibility for disability. There is no private 
sector policy that will ever offer it. These are insurance and 
disability benefits. They are not private accounts. They are not 
401(k)s. They are not certificates of deposit. This is an insurance and 
disabilities program. It has always been that.
  The Congress voted repeatedly not to allow the executive branch to 
dip into the trust fund, and yet that is exactly what is happening 
today. The President is trying to whip up a frenzy in the country and 
say the sky is falling, the sky is falling, trying to scare America's 
seniors and our young people who are going to get old someday into 
thinking Social Security is in crisis. Even the head of the AARP has 
said Social Security is not in crisis, the program will remain solvent, 
and what we have to do over the next 50 years is just to make sure that 
the gap financing that is there will cover future beneficiaries.
  We can do that in several ways. We have done it before. We can do it 
again. In fact, what is interesting, the Bush administration's four 
enacted tax cuts being made permanent would cost 2 percent of GDP over 
the next 75 years, which is three to five times as much as any of 
Social Security's future financing needs. Under their plan, instead of 
benefits being tied to prevailing standards of living during the course 
of a worker's career, the change would freeze Social Security benefits 
at today's standard of living, which means we would keep regressing 
backwards, and future generations of retirees would have lower and 
lower benefits compared to their wages during their working lives.
  This cut would apply to all beneficiaries whether or not they had 
chosen to have a private account. It should not be an either/or, 
private accounts or Social Security. It should be both, and make sure 
Social Security is solvent. Stop borrowing against it. And fine, let us 
encourage private savings like we used to in this country up until the 
last few years.
  Social Security should be a guarantee, an insurance guarantee and a 
disability guarantee, as Democrats have not only promised but have 
delivered from the time of Franklin Roosevelt. Social Security should 
be a guarantee, not a gamble.
  Let me end with the words to the Republicans, I can only say if they 
want to fight on Social Security, bring it on, because this Member 
intends to honor thy father and thy mother.

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