[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 27, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H6047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Madam Speaker, I rise today just a few weeks in advance of 
the 75th anniversary of Social Security. This bedrock promise, earned 
with a lifetime of hard work, should be available for our Nation's 
seniors and future generations. However, my friends on the other side 
of the aisle are once again attempting to privatize Social Security.
  Returning to previously rejected ideas, Republicans want to create a 
casino economy and play Russian roulette with your hard-earned 
benefits. If they had succeeded, for instance in 2005, seniors would 
have lost trillions more in the stock market meltdown of the Bush 
recession. Instead, nobody lost a penny of Social Security.
  In the area that I represent, many people are hurting. Families and 
seniors are facing uncertainty and anxiety ranging from their mortgage 
payments, to credit card bills, and more. Let us not add to that 
anxiety by returning to failed ideas of the past. We must keep America 
moving forward.
  There is a very clear choice here. We can hand the Social Security 
system over to Wall Street and continue raising anxiety, or we can 
strengthen the current system. I stand with our Nation's seniors to 
strengthen Social Security for the years to come.

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