[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S92-S93]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, this is becoming a regular appearance on 
the Senate floor to talk about Social Security. It is something that 
most Americans think that Congress supports almost unanimously.
  It is a program that has been with us. President Roosevelt, on August 
14, 1935, signed the Social Security Act. Out of that came Medicare, 
when a Democratic Congress in 1965, with President Johnson's signature, 
signed it.
  We know what Medicare means. We know what Social Security means for 
people who live longer, healthier lives. No matter your income, no 
matter if you have been a Senator for 20 years, no matter if you are a 
CEO, no matter if you are a UAW member and at a Ford plant in Avon, no 
matter if you are a low-income worker at the Hilton Hotel on West 
Market in Akron, no matter your work, you are eligible, at a certain 
age, for Social Security and Medicare.
  So what is the debate about? Well, the debate is philosophical, and I 
am not even sure what. It is partly my conservative colleagues who 
generally want to privatize Medicare and Social Security. For them, it 
seems to be something philosophic or ideological or sometimes it is 
just people wanting to support the insurance industry because if you 
privatize Medicare and Social Security, yes, it will help the insurance 
companies; yes, it will help the banks. If you privatize the VA, like 
many want to do--the Veterans' Administration--undermining what 
veterans have earned by serving their country, it may help some private 
sector corporations. It will help pad their bottom line. It will help 
many CEOs make even more money, but it is wrong. When work has dignity, 
people have a secure retirement, veterans have benefits, and pensions 
are protected, Americans can count on Medicare and count on Social 
Security.
  A secure retirement shouldn't be a partisan issue. It wasn't a 
partisan issue, particularly in the 1930s. It is not a partisan issue 
to the American people. I don't think you can tell a Republican from a 
Democrat who is 70 years old or 80 years old drawing Social Security 
and Medicare. They know they have earned it. They have paid into it for 
decades. As I have said, they have earned it.
  It is one of the most unifying institutions in the country. Americans 
want to protect Social Security and Medicare. They want to make those 
programs stronger, Americans do. But elected officials--far too many 
people on this side of the aisle, as the Senator from Connecticut 
knows--far too many people from this side of the aisle think that we 
should privatize those programs; that they will be more efficient or 
some such philosophical jargon that they throw forward. But we know 
what will happen: insurance companies will make more money, banks will 
make more money, and people who have worked in this country and played 
by the rules all their lives get squeezed.
  Today, down the hall--especially straight down the hall in the House 
of Representatives down there--the Republicans are threatening, in 
order to raise the debt limit--the debt limit is simply, we should pay 
our bills. The Trump administration and all administrations have run 
this deficit up. We should pay the bills. That is what it is about. 
They are refusing to pay the bills our Nation owes, and they are saying 
that if we don't do what they want to do, then they are going stop 
Social Security checks from going out. They are going to try to 
privatize Social Security.
  They want to take this country and the American economy to the brink 
of default. They want to leverage their fiscal lunacy. It really is 
leveraging their fiscal lunacy, frankly, to cut your Social Security. 
It is that simple.
  Then, as I said, there is privatizing Social Security. The details 
differ. The terms may change, but the goal is the same.
  I have been in the Senate now, this is the beginning--it is my 17th 
year. Every couple of years, a few of the ``wunderkinds'' on that side 
of the aisle want to try to find a way to privatize Social Security, 
privatize Medicare, and privatize the Veterans' Administration. It is 
nothing less than an attempt to go back on a bedrock promise.
  (Ms. CORTEZ MASTO assumed the Chair.)
  The Senator from Nevada understands that people pay into Social 
Security every paycheck. They tend to pay into Medicare every--well, 
that is not actually true. If you are really, really, really rich, you 
only pay into Social Security for the first part of the year because 
you have already paid enough for the year, and it is some philosophy 
that I don't really understand.

[[Page S93]]

But it is a bedrock promise to all of us. You pay in; you get those 
benefits.
  Last year, I introduced a resolution--the Senator from Nevada 
cosponsored it--affirming the Senate's commitment to protecting and 
expanding Social Security. It was pretty simple. It simply said we 
affirm, we pledge we will protect Social Security and Medicare from any 
kinds of cuts from the far right that doesn't believe in the program. 
Almost every Democrat signed on. Not one Republican signed on. Not one 
Republican committed to our promise, recommitted to our promise to the 
American people, that if you work hard all your life, Social Security 
will be there for you.
  So Americans shouldn't have to worry that politicians, secure with 
their government pensions, are going to try to take away their 
retirement. I urge my colleagues to do what the American people want us 
to do overwhelmingly. They want us to protect and expand Social 
Security and Medicare.
  As I said, just look down the hall in the House of Representatives. 
There is a new majority there--a new majority controlled by the far 
right--of what used to be a pretty centrist Republican Party, from the 
far right, that--whenever they try to privatize Social Security and 
Medicare, they get all kinds of contributions from the rightwing and 
from Wall Street and from some big healthcare companies and some big 
energy companies and all that, and it is wrong. We know it is wrong. 
Whether it is Nevada, whether it is Las Vegas or Cleveland, whether it 
is Reno or Columbus, whether it is Carson City or Dayton, we know that 
overwhelmingly people in this country want a strong Social Security 
that will always be there for our kids and our grandkids and our great-
grandkids. They want a Medicare that will provide healthcare to people 
regardless of your wealth, regardless of your income, regardless of 
your station in life.
  That is my pledge. I know the Senators on the floor from Connecticut 
and Nevada also support that commitment and pledge. It is where we are 
as a country. It is not, unfortunately, where some of my colleagues 
sit.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.

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