[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 21, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H235-H236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ENHANCING AMERICA'S LIFELINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Larson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a 
critical issue for all of America, Social Security.
  Mr. Speaker, as you know, there are more than 70 million Social 
Security recipients in the United States of America. What most 
Americans don't realize is that it has been more than 50 years since 
Congress last enhanced Social Security. Richard Nixon was President of 
the United States the last time Congress voted to enhance benefits.
  Now, some will say: Well, wait a minute, didn't we just recently vote 
on Social Security in terms of making sure that teachers and 
firefighters and municipal employees and police officers would be able 
to get Social Security insurance? The answer is, yes, we did, except it 
wasn't paid for, which means that when we say it hasn't been enhanced, 
in fact, what that did is cut the Social Security trust fund.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to say that it is long overdue that we have 
a vote on Social Security. That doesn't seem to ask too much of the new 
Congress, and after all, the incoming President says that he cares 
about Social Security and has proposed also that there be tax cuts for 
people on Social Security. That is a good idea, except they have to be 
paid for. His legislation doesn't call for that, but ours does.
  We have put before the American people, and will be bringing to the 
floor, Social Security legislation that enhances the program for the 
first time in 50-plus years. Imagine that, 70 million recipients. There 
are 5 million of our fellow Americans who get below-poverty-level 
checks from Social Security after having paid into the system all their 
lives because Congress hasn't acted. Congress hasn't voted.
  There are some 35 million Americans whom the only benefit that they 
have is Social Security. The average Social Security payment is $18,000 
for a male, $14,000 for a female. No one is getting wealthy on Social 
Security, but it is, as I like to say, the lifeline of capitalism, the 
full support for capitalism.
  It allows people to take risks. It allows us to be entrepreneurial 
because in the event the business doesn't succeed or fail, there is 
that system. The

[[Page H236]]

genius of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was that he saw that, and the 
genius of successive Congresses was that they enhanced the program. 
However, the last time it was enhanced, Richard Nixon was President of 
the United States in 1971.
  This also is, for Americans, a lifeline because of what it does. 
Speaker Smith was just in the chair before, and I was explaining that 
in his district, he has over 150,000 recipients, Mr. Speaker. Those 
recipients are broken down in several different ways: Retirees, over 
100,000; spouses, over 8,000; widows, 8,000; 14,000 disabled people in 
Speaker Smith's district, but they haven't received an increase from 
the United States Congress since 1971.
  If you disagree with it--if you disagree that people don't deserve 
this, to have their Social Security updated, brought into the modern 
times that we live in, then vote against it, but for God's sake, for 
the more than 70 million Americans who rely on this and need this, it 
is long overdue for a vote. Don't you think so?

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