[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 3, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today and pretty much every day for most 
Americans of this year, they will see 6.2 percent taken out of their 
paycheck to pay for their Social Security retirement. If they are self-
employed, they will see 12.4 percent taken out. That is everyone who 
earns up to $90,000 every paycheck, day in day out they are paying that 
tax.
  And in paying that tax, they will create a $170 billion surplus to 
pay for future retirement benefits for themselves. But, now, the 
President has revealed his true agenda. After talking about 
privatization for months, something which would, in fact, worsen the 
financial condition of Social Security, he has now changed the debate 
to talking about how he is going to reduce the retirement benefits of 
middle-class Americans.
  Now, things are a little bit different from the President. I mean, we 
will disregard all of his unearned income and all of the things that he 
has been given and all of those earnings. Let us just talk about his 
salary, $400,000 as President of the United States. So that means that 
the President of the United States pays Social Security tax until 3 
a.m. on March 24.
  Now, that does not seem quite fair. Other working Americans are going 
to pay that tax all year long. But, let us look at some of Mr. Bush's 
friends. Tom Freston and Les Moonves of Viacom. They stop paying Social 
Security tax at 4 a.m. on January 2, because they earn $77,000 a day.
  Now, it really is not going to matter or even be noticed by George 
Bush when they are reduced or Mr. Freston or Mr. Moonves at Viacom, you 
know, not even their accountants will notice it, but it is certainly 
going to be noticed by those middle-class Americans.
  The President's cuts, which he cast as being fair and progressive, 
will fall most heavily on middle-income working families in this 
country. You know, a median, what they call a median earner, $36,000, 
say a public school teacher, will see, if they retired 40 years from 
now, a young teacher, they will see a reduction of 16 percent in their 
Social Security benefits, from $19,000 down to $16,000. I think they 
are going to notice that; it is going to hurt a lot.
  What the President's folk call a high earner, $58,400 a year, well 
they will see a 25 percent reduction. In fact, the reduction for people 
who earn $58,000 a year will be equal to or worse than if Congress did 
nothing about Social Security, because it is not going to be bankrupt 
like the President says. Social Security will never be bankrupt. Stop 
saying that.
  It will have to, if nothing is done and we have a very bad economy, 
reduce benefits by, say, 20 percent according to the Republican 
Congressional Budget Office or 25 percent, so they can pay benefits 
into the indefinite future, starting 40 or 50 years from now. That is 
not a crisis. That is not bankruptcy.
  But the President would guarantee reductions, at least that big, for 
many working families to save the program. But that is not all. That is 
not all the President has in mind. Because, he said, this is based on 
the Pozen plan, some financial guru out there who he says is a 
Democrat. Who cares if he is a Democrat or Republican. He is some rich 
guy, financial guy. And what Mr. Pozen proposed is you not only reduce 
retirement benefits, you reduce survivor's benefits, and you reduce 
disability benefits.
  That is what the President said he endorses last week during his 
speech. He is going to reduce middle-income retirees' Social Security 
benefits 25 percent. And if they should be so unlucky as to become 
totally disabled, incapable of working, he is going to reduce their 
disability benefits by 25 percent; or should they have even more 
misfortune and die, their survivors will get a reduced benefit of 25 
percent to, quote, save the program.
  The President is not done there, though. He is not only reducing 
survivors benefits, retirement benefits, disability benefits. He wants 
to push these people into so-called voluntarily private plans after he 
has reduced their benefits; and the so-called private plans, the 
President's privatization has a little something called a claw-back, 
which is the government is allowing you to divert your Social Security 
money, but it is considered to be a loan, which will be repaid at the 
time of your retirement, death, or disability at the rate of 3 percent 
plus inflation.
  Now, if your investments did not do too well, your survivors are 
going to be writing the government a check; or if you get to retirement 
and you did not do too well, well, you are going to see your Social 
Security benefits reduce up to 97 percent under the President's 
privatization plan.
  There are better ways to secure the financial future of Social 
Security, which I will talk about on another evening.

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