[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H994-H995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pence). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) 
is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, last Friday, President Bush quickly stopped 
in on Westfield, New Jersey, to talk to a bunch of his supporters about 
his Social Security privatization proposal. The Westfield, New Jersey, 
stop was part of a 6-week push to convince Americans that the Social 
Security program faces an immediate crisis. The President did not do as 
well as he wanted, and so now he has hired a couple of public relations 
experts to run a war room at the Social Security Administration. The 
administration is also beginning a 60-day push to convince voters that 
his privatization plan is the best thing for both seniors today and 
young people tomorrow.
  Mr. Speaker, President Bush has failed in convincing Americans that 
his plan is the way to go because he has even admitted that 
privatization does nothing to fix the solvency problem Social Security 
faces in the year 2052. As the President goes around the country 
pitching his privatization plan, he continues to exaggerate Social 
Security's current fiscal state. Last Friday in Westfield, he claimed, 
``The safety net has a hole in it,'' and he continues to say that the 
whole system goes broke in 2042.
  That is simply not true. Based on the most current estimates from the 
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security is fully 
solvent until 2052, meaning that every benefit that has been promised 
to seniors, the disabled, and survivors can be paid through that year. 
Imagine that. There is no other government program that is fully funded 
for the next 47 years. And President Bush calls this a crisis?
  The President is also wrong when he says the program goes broke in 
2042, because, as I stated, it is not only fully solvent another decade 
after that, but what exactly happens in 2052? When President Bush says 
Social Security goes broke, most would believe there is no money left 
after 2052 in Social Security. After all, if you look at Webster's 
Dictionary, it defines ``broke'' simply as ``penniless.'' Again, this 
is another

[[Page H995]]

fabrication because even after 2052, the Social Security system would 
still have enough money to be able to pay out 80 percent of all 
guaranteed benefits. That does not sound broke to me: 100 percent to 
2052, 80 percent after that. How is that a crisis? How is that broke?
  Again, the President exaggerates the solvency of Social Security. But 
what has he proposed that will extend that solvency beyond 2052? The 
answer is, nothing, as of today. Last Friday in New Jersey, the 
President said, ``We've got to make sure we save the safety net for 
future generations.'' But even the President has admitted that his 
privatization plan does nothing to extend the solvency of Social 
Security. In fact, because the President's plan would take money out of 
the Social Security trust fund to pay for these private accounts, 
Social Security would actually become insolvent more than 20 years 
earlier under President Bush's plan.
  Mr. Speaker, for 70 years, Social Security has improved the lives of 
millions of Americans. Nearly 47 million people receive Social Security 
benefits, including more than 32 million retired workers. Of those, 
two-thirds receive more than half of their retirement income from 
Social Security, meaning that without the guaranteed benefit of Social 
Security, more than two-thirds of today's seniors would be living in 
extreme poverty.
  Social Security gave our parents and our grandparents independence. 
Democrats, Mr. Speaker, are willing to work with the President in a 
bipartisan fashion to address Social Security's future, but we simply 
refuse to support the President's privatization proposal because it 
dismantles the independent Social Security program. Our seniors now 
have a guaranteed benefit. They would not have one if we adopt the 
President's plan. And it does nothing to solve the Social Security 
solvency problem, again, in 2052.
  I think our seniors deserve better. We deserve a President that tells 
us the truth about what is going on. There is no crisis. Let us sit 
down together on a bipartisan basis and see what we can do to come up 
with a solution other than privatization.

                          ____________________