[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 24, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S70-S71]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, thank you for your leadership and your 
desire to continue to lead in our country.
  Everything I do here, everything that most of us do here, I think, 
should come back to the dignity of work--the idea that hard work should 
pay off for everyone, no matter who you are, no matter whether you 
punch a clock or swipe a badge, no matter if you are management or 
labor, no matter if you are self-employed, where you live, what kind of 
work you do. When work has dignity--by definition, the ``dignity of 
work,'' brought to us originally by Leo XIII, ``the labor Pope'' of 120 
years ago--with the Presiding Officer's faith, he knows about Leo XII--
and brought to us by Dr. King--when work has dignity, people have a 
secure retirement. It means you count on Social Security and Medicare. 
It means we protect people's pensions. It means the VA continues paying 
benefits that you earned if you were exposed to Agent Orange or to 
these massive football field-size burn pits. It means people make 
enough money for retirement and for a rainy day.
  It is why in this body, just 2 years ago--in March, slightly fewer 
than 2 years ago--we saved the pensions of 100,000 Ohioans, tens of 
thousands in Virginia, a million around the country, people who worked 
their whole lives. They earned the pension and the peace of mind in 
retirement for themselves and their families.
  Think about what that means.
  It is why we are still fighting for the Delphi retirees who, again, 
lost their pensions through no fault of theirs. It is why we will 
always--always, always--fight back against attacks on Social Security, 
attacks on Medicare, and efforts to privatize the Veterans' 
Administration.
  A secure retirement should never be a partisan issue. On August 14, 
1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Ever since 
that time, it should not--it was partisan then. Most Democrats were for 
it, and most Republicans were, I will just say, less for it. But it has 
become a partisan issue far too often.
  Social Security and Medicare are two of the most popular, most 
unifying institutions of the country. It is our government's promise to 
working men and women, a promise that they will be able to retire with 
dignity. You pay in every paycheck--twice a month, whatever--and you 
are guaranteed that benefit.

[[Page S71]]

  Support for Social Security cuts across party lines. It cuts across 
racial lines. It cuts across geographic lines. Americans not only want 
to protect Social Security and Medicare--that goes without saying, 
although many of my colleagues want to undermined it--but they want to 
make these programs stronger.
  But that is what Republicans--I don't want to make this into a 
partisan issue, but it has been, unfortunately. It is not what the 
Republicans in Congress want to do.
  I want every American to understand that Republicans in Congress are 
planning to hold your Social Security hostage. They have done it 
several different ways over the years. So let's talk about it today.
  They have threatened not to raise the debt limit. Raising the debt 
limit sounds complicated and sounds expensive. It is not. Raising the 
debt limit, said another way, is about paying our bills, paying the 
bills our Nation owes and keeping our word. We did this three times 
under Donald Trump with no drama. Their refusal to pay our bills 
undermines U.S. global leadership.
  For seniors, it would be a disaster. It means that Social Security 
checks would stop going out. It would mean that seniors won't get their 
Social Security checks if we don't keep our promises and pay our bills. 
It is the first way this year that Republicans will attack Social 
Security.
  Second, they want to take this country and the American economy to 
the brink of default and then leverage their fiscal lunacy to cut your 
Social Security. Ten years ago, 15 years ago, Republicans didn't act 
this way. It is this new--just going down the hall here, you can see 
the other place, the place where the other ones work. The people who 
are the most extreme in that body clearly are trying to bring this 
country to the brink. They are willing to take the U.S. economy hostage 
and only agree to pay our bills--bills we have all run up, including a 
huge part of that with President Trump and the Republican Congress with 
the big tax cut giveaway to the richest people in this country--they 
are willing to take the economy hostage and raise the debt limit if 
Congress cuts Social Security. The only way they are going to pay their 
bills is if Congress cuts Social Security. That is what they are 
saying.

  Let that sink in. Congressional Republicans intend to use the fact 
that we need to pay our bills, pay our bills that already have 
accrued--to pay our bills is their tool for cutting Social Security. 
You might disguise their policy as a commission. Every time you hear 
the word ``commission'' and then they describe the next part of the 
sentence to reform Social Security, you know what it means. Their plan 
is to leverage this: We are going to not pay our bills to cut your 
Social Security.
  Finally, there is privatizing Social Security. The details differ. 
The terms may change, but the goal is the same: to kill off Social 
Security by shrinking it and privatizing it and undermining public 
support.
  It doesn't matter if you voted for this Republican or that Republican 
who sits at these desks or Senator Casey or Senator Wyden or Senator 
Kaine. Overwhelmingly, people who go to the polls and vote support 
Social Security and don't want Social Security privatized.
  What is happening is nothing less than an attempt to go back on the 
bedrock promise made to America's middle class that Social Security 
would be there for them.
  On August 14, 1935, Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security 
Act. In 1940 or 1941, for a woman in New Hampshire, I think her first 
check was $24. I believe she was a retired schoolteacher and got the 
first Social Security check.
  It doesn't matter to them, to Social Security beneficiaries, about 
all the politics here. But we know that for Social Security checks, 
people paid into the program their whole entire working lives. Our 
government should work for people who paid into Social Security, not 
against them.
  When work has dignity, we honor the retirement security people 
earned. I urge my Republican colleagues in this body--colleagues, I 
point out, with healthcare and retirement plans; all of us with 
healthcare and retirement plans paid for by taxpayers--our retirements 
aren't at risk. Why should it be for Social Security beneficiaries? 
None of my colleagues over here are saying: Let's privatize the 
retirement system for Members of Congress.
  They never say that. They say: Let's privatize Social Security. Let's 
privatize the Veterans' Administration in Richmond or Cleveland or 
Cincinnati. Let's privatize Medicare.
  They never talk about privatizing their benefits.
  But think about the generations of Americans who have benefited from 
Social Security and the generations to come relying on the promise of 
Social Security and Medicare.
  For the last part of my remarks, Mr. President, I introduced a 
resolution affirming the Senate's commitment, last year, to protecting 
and expanding Social Security.
  Dozens of my colleagues got on this bill, including, I believe, the 
Presiding Officer--a resolution affirming the Senate's commitment to 
protecting and expanding Social Security. But you know what? Not one 
Republican signed onto this resolution; not one recommitted to the 
promise of the American people that if you work hard all of your life, 
Social Security will be there for you.
  What is more American, what is more basic, what is more family-
oriented than: I pay into Social Security my whole life, I pay into 
Medicare, and if I get prematurely sick or disabled or when I retire, 
why would we not honor that commitment? Why do some Members of Congress 
want to privatize this program? Because we know what happens when they 
are privatized. The investors come in, the banks come in and end up 
undermining it, and there is less dollars--fewer dollars available and 
less public support.
  Americans shouldn't have to worry that politicians secure with 
government pensions are going to try to take away their retirement 
benefits that they earn. I will again introduce that resolution--
probably next month--affirming the Senate's commitment to protecting 
and expanding Social Security, opposed to privatization.
  I will again ask all my colleagues to sign on. I assume we will get 
many. I am hopeful this time--hopeful--that some Republicans join us. 
Republican seniors in Ohio would support it. It is just, their elected 
officials so often don't.
  People shouldn't have to worry if politicians who put our entire 
economy at risk by using this debt limit fight--this ``are we going to 
pay our bills or not'' fight--to cut social security, but here we are.
  I urge my colleagues to do the patriotic duty to raise the debt 
limit, without condition, without threatening economic calamity. And I 
ask that you work with us to do what the American people overwhelmingly 
want: protect and expand Social Security and Medicare and VA benefits.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). The Senator from Georgia.

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