[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 13 (Wednesday, February 9, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SOCIAL SECURITY NEEDS BIPARTISAN REFORM

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, last week the Democrats booed when the 
President laid out his plan for Social Security. I promise one thing: I 
will not boo when and if they lay out their plan.
  I welcome the Democrats' ideas on Social Security. I think it is very 
important to make a bipartisan reform. We need to protect and preserve 
Social Security not just for the next election, but for the next 
generation. I beg my Democrat colleagues to put a plan on the table. We 
will not boo. We will look at it and take the best of your ideas and 
combine them with the best ideas of the Senate, the House and the White 
House.
  We all seem to agree, in the year 2018, more money will be going out 
of the trust fund than is going in. We all agree in the year 2042, if 
we do not whack benefits 27 percent, the program will be going 
bankrupt. We all agree that in the 1950s, there were 16 workers for 
every one retiree, and today there are 3.3 workers for every retiree. 
And we all know this because the Democrats participate in the Federal 
Employee Thrift Savings accounts, which allow them to choose interest-
earning accounts similar to the personal accounts the President has 
proposed.
  Madam Speaker, I again ask the Democrats, Please put your ideas on 
the table; we will not boo.

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