[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 38 (Wednesday, April 6, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1788]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, this year, the United States Government 
will collect $170 billion more in social security taxes than it needs 
to pay current benefits. That is $300,000 a minute from the working men 
and women and small businesses of America. And that money is being used 
to buy Treasury bonds. It is being put away under the premise that we 
are creating a trust fund. The full faith and credit of the United 
States Government backs those bonds.
  Now, the President is questioning the full faith and credit, and he 
is saying there is no trust fund. Now, if the President is right and 
there is no trust fund, then we should stop taking $170 billion from 
the working men and women under a false premise. That would be fraud.
  We have to do either one of two things: lower the tax on working men 
and women in this country and small businesses, or honor the trust fund 
and the debt of the United States of America. I think there is only one 
choice, and that is to honor the debt of the country. But we have a 
President who is saying he might not.
  Who is he going to pay first? The Chinese, the Japanese? Is he going 
to pay off his Treasury bonds first and then default on the savings of 
the working people of this country?

                              {time}  1230

  Mr. Speaker, it is an outrageous and reckless statement of the 
President of the United States to make, and if the bond markets 
believed the President, there would be an economic catastrophe today.

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