[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 22 (Wednesday, March 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H921-H922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PRESIDENT BUSH'S SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION PROPOSAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  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. 
For 6 weeks, the President has been working to build support for his 
plan, but it has fallen flat with the American people and it will fall 
flat also in New Jersey.
  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 even he has admitted his own privatization plan 
does nothing to fix the problem Social Security faces 40 years from 
now.
  The problem is that private accounts eliminate the guaranteed 
benefits of Social Security and leave benefits to the vagaries of the 
stock market. Since the money is taken out of the Social Security trust 
fund to pay for private accounts, the shortfall results in benefit cuts 
to Social Security recipients,

[[Page H922]]

and the Federal Government has to borrow more money and go further in 
debt to try to make up for the shortfall.
  Last week, I held two Social Security town hall forums in different 
parts of the State. First, I talked with senior citizens in Smithville, 
just outside of Atlantic City, and next I visited with more than 70 
college students in Brookdale, at Brookdale Community College in 
Monmouth County. Here too the forum was open to all members of the 
college's political science and history club. I would assume some of 
the participants were Republicans, but that does not really matter.
  The bottom line is that as Members of Congress, Senators, and senior 
organizations hold forums around the country and explain the 
President's privatization plan, there is more and more opposition to 
it. While the President still seems to think his privatization plan is 
catching on, Congressional Republicans brave enough to have town hall 
forums heard an earful from supporters of the current Social Security 
System.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just give some examples. From the February 23 
edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer: ``At two stops, morning at Drexel 
University; afternoon at Widener University, the Pennsylvania 
Republican Senator Santorum encountered skepticism and hostility as he 
voiced his support for the White House plan to allow privatization of 
personal accounts using payroll taxes. He was heckled by protesters, 
called a liar, and told that his views were unconscionable. Those 
sentiments ranged across the spectrum.''
  That is from the Philadelphia Inquirer. From the February 22 
Washington Post: ``At every stop, Representative Paul Ryan faced 
skeptics. Nancy McDonald, 66, who sells securities and insurance, 
complained in Darien that health care for the uninsured needs to be 
addressed before Social Security. `Slow down! Slow down!' She scolded 
the lawmaker at one point.''
  And finally, Mr. Speaker, I take a quote from the February 22 
Savannah Morning News. ``At Armstrong Atlantic State University, the 
subject of Social Security caused a crowd of 200 to become rowdy. 
Questions were shouted out. The congressman,'' Congressman Kingston, 
``was interrupted. And one of Congressman Kingston's assistants was 
booed when she announced an end to the hour-long discussion.''
  These are just examples. In meeting after meeting Republicans got a 
chilly reception to the President's Social Security plan. Maybe that is 
why we heard today that Senate majority leader Bill Frist thinks the 
Senate may not be able to take up the President's Social Security 
privatization plan until next year.
  Mr. Speaker, many of my constituents are concerned about the 
President's plan. Unfortunately, they will not have the opportunity to 
voice those concerns to the President this Friday morning in Westfield, 
New Jersey. But we are going to be heard anyway. I have chartered a 
bus, and I am taking several dozen of my constituents to join people 
from all over New Jersey at a rally in support of truly strengthening 
Social Security.
  We are going to go with the bus to Westfield, New Jersey, where the 
President is going to be, and maybe the President will send some of his 
staffers over so they can really hear from us how their plan is being 
received outside the White House. It is not being received well, 
because Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the 
President's privatization plan is bad for them, bad for Social 
Security, and bad for America.

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