[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 26110]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    STOP THE RAID ON SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. KNOLLENBERG asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, as everybody knows, last week the 
Congressional Budget Office reported that the Federal Government, for 
the first time in nearly 40 years, avoided spending any of the Social 
Security Trust Fund forward other Government programs.
  I hear this business about $13 billion from the other side. They know 
that that was based on an inquiry with false presumptions, none of 
which ever came about.
  What I would like to say is, for the first time, the Social Security 
surplus bottom line is in the black. This in itself is the single-most 
important budgetary accomplishment that Congress, and I mean all of 
Congress, has achieved in years.
  But we should not lose sight how we got here. In 1995, when the 
Republican Congress took charge, we organized spending priorities. We 
got a lot of bipartisan support. All of this was done in an effort to 
protect the American taxpayers' money and strengthen vital programs 
like Social Security.
  Yet earlier this year, the President proposed dipping into the 
surplus by $57 billion. Now he is threatening to veto certain bills 
because they do not spend enough. That is hardly an effort to protect 
Social Security. Stop the raid on Social Security.

                          ____________________