[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 26461]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              {time}  1030

              LET US WORK TOGETHER TO SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, for those people that might be 
watching this session arguing between that side and this side, who 
think it is more important to save Social Security, really the news is 
so good, because if both sides can work together to make sure the 
President does not raid the Social Security trust fund, we are going to 
be so much better off.
  For 40 years, we have been spending the Social Security surplus for 
other government programs. When we did the ``Contract with America,'' 
we said we were going to balance the budget. We set the target date for 
2002. Actually we accomplished it this past year that ended October 1. 
We balanced the budget without using the Social Security trust fund. So 
now that we have got both sides working together, let us do that. Let 
us not start criticizing that we are not spending enough money in these 
appropriation bills because what that means is you are spending the 
Social Security surplus. It is tough for politicians in Washington not 
to spend more money to do more good things for the people in this 
country simply because they are more apt to get reelected when they 
spend that money.
  Let us be frugal. Let us run our pocketbook and our checking account 
like everybody else.

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