[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 32 (Wednesday, March 16, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1513]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, in 2008, only 3 years from now, 
the first baby boomers will start collecting retirement benefits from 
Social Security, and for these people the system has worked very well, 
but when our children and grandchildren get set to retire, the only 
thing that will greet them is frustration, grief and heartache at what 
we did today or, better yet, what we did not do to fix Social Security.
  Mr. Speaker, I have practiced medicine for over 20 years, and I know 
that in order to treat the right disease you have got to make the right 
diagnosis, and the right diagnosis for the Social Security system is 
that we are on an unsustainable course. The right treatment is to fix 
the problem today rather than passing the problem on to future 
generations.
  If we continue to postpone solutions, our only alternatives will be 
large tax increases or significant benefit reductions.
  The goal of our ongoing discussion is not to pin blame on anyone. The 
goal is to have a system that will work for our children and our 
grandchildren, one that is stable, funded and secure.
  A Social Security system that was designed for the world of 1935 will 
not work for the world of 2035 and beyond. Changes must be made, and 
the sooner we act the more secure we all will be.

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