[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 33 (Thursday, March 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H1683-H1684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1730
                    KEEP SECURITY IN SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Price of Georgia). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, in the ongoing debate on Social Security, I 
think it is essential that we take the time to put a face on the people 
served by and protected by Social Security.
  All of the numbers and charts help us make the outline of the 
arguments, but it is the letters that I receive from my constituents 
that show the real face of Social Security. I would like to take the 
time to show one of those letters, one of the 400-plus letters I have 
received.
  A gentleman named Hector MacDonald from Laredo, Texas. It says,

[[Page H1684]]

``Dear Congressman Cuellar, As a member of the National Committee to 
preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to urge you please 
oppose any legislation or plan that would divert dedicated Social 
Security payroll taxes into private individual accounts or in any way 
harm the benefits, structure or traditional role of Social Security.
  As you know, President Roosevelt and Congress created Social Security 
in 1935 to protect retired Americans from experiencing a poverty ridden 
old age. And America's more than 35 million seniors have invested their 
hard earned money into Social Security during their long working lives. 
Social Security represents a covenant between government and its 
citizens. I therefore stand against the administration's policy and 
plans to reform Social Security through partial privatization or any 
other plan that would undermine the promise of the program's full 
guaranteed lifetime benefits.
  One of my top priorities as a citizen and a voter is the protection 
of Social Security benefits for all current and future retirees. I 
sincerely hope among your top priorities as an elected official that 
you will also help defeat the privatization and other proposals that 
threatened our retirement security.
  I urge you to work closely with the National Committee to Preserve 
Social Security and Medicare and protect the benefits we have worked 
for, paid for and have earned. Very sincerely, Mr. Hector MacDonald'' 
from Laredo, Texas.
  Again, I have received many letters like this, and I think this 
letter, Mr. Speaker, speaks for itself. I received over 400 letters 
like this one opposing the privatization of Social Security.
  I have taken the time to read these letters, and I have taken a great 
deal of time to carefully review the proposal and listen to all sides 
of the debate; and after a thorough analysis I have come to see clearly 
that this proposal to privatize Social Security does not pass my 
legislative test. That is, it will not make our families stronger.
  The current proposal to privatize Social Security jeopardizes our 
safety net by pulling the security out of Social Security. It takes our 
guaranteed benefits and gambles them on a stock market. It threatens to 
pose benefit cuts, raising the retirement age. And finally it assures 
adding a tremendous sum to our existing $7 trillion debt.
  Social Security has always been the one source free from risk and 
designed to reserve as a bedrock guarantee for our seniors.
  The system was created and has served for generations as social 
insurance, not social investment; and we owe it to ourselves and our 
children, especially our seniors, to preserve that bedrock guarantee.

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