[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 28 (Thursday, March 10, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PRESIDENT'S SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION PLAN UNDERMINES RETIREES' 
                               NEST EGGS

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, today we are reminded 
in the press that it is 5 years since the bubble burst on the NASDAQ 
stock market. It has been 5 years; and those people who invested in 
that market, in those index funds, have recovered 60 percent, or is 
still 60 percent below where it was in 2000.
  For those people who thought they are going to retire on their 
401(k)s who were invested in the market at that point, we have all 
heard the stories when we return to our districts that their spouses 
are going to continue to work, that they are going to postpone for a 
year; they are not going to be able to retire like they thought they 
were.
  This does not mean we should not invest in the market; it simply 
means we should not take $15 trillion out of Social Security and 
undermine the guarantee that it provides to those workers, those very 
same workers, in many instances, who, in their corporate 401(k)s have 
lost almost 40 percent, if they stayed there today, of their retirement 
nest egg. That nest egg ought to be preserved, and the President should 
not be allowed to undermine that nest egg by taking $15 trillion out of 
Social Security.

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