[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 22 (Wednesday, March 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H852]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SOCIAL SECURITY TOWN HALL MEETINGS

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, this Friday, President Bush plans to take 
his traveling White House to New Jersey in the hope of convincing New 
Jersey workers to support his Social Security privatization proposal. I 
only wish the President would open his event up to New Jerseyans who 
did not contribute huge amounts to his reelection campaign or who 
refused to sign a letter saying they are a card-carrying Republican. 
Maybe then he would hear the public's real concerns about his 
privatization plan.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people simply do not believe the President 
wants to strengthen Social Security. President Bush keeps on talking 
about a crisis, but he has even admitted that his own privatization 
plan does nothing to fix the problems Social Security faces 40 years 
from now. Instead of fixing a future problem, the President's 
privatization plan actually jeopardizes the future of Social Security 
by moving insolvency forward from 2052 to 2031, meaning we would face a 
real crisis much sooner under the President's plan.
  I welcome the President's visit. For 6 weeks, he has been working to 
build support for his plan, but it has fallen flat with the American 
people and it will also fall flat in New Jersey.

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