[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 27065]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 SOCIAL SECURITY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD

  (Mr. RODRIGUEZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I firmly believe in Social Security; and 
when we look at it, when we look at the legislation, we got to make 
sure we address the needs of those senior citizens that we have in this 
country. We also need to make sure that we address the baby boomers as 
they come up in this.
  And as we also look at that piece of legislation, as we look at what 
we are doing out here, we need to also make sure that we take care of 
the ``baby echo,'' those youngsters that are beginning to pay Social 
Security and those youngsters are beginning to work out there. It is 
important for us to do that.
  As we also look at what Social Security has done in this country, a 
lot of Americans out there who work saw that they have. My dad worked 
for over 35 years in a company, and after all was said and done, the 
only thing he had was Social Security. Social Security, there are 12 
million senior citizens who only receive that, and that is what keeps 
them out of poverty. There are over 800,000 youngsters that also fall 
under the Social Security that are also taken care of. Many Americans, 
especially women and minorities, do not have the jobs that provide the 
retirement and disability benefits. For them Social Security is the 
only thing they have. So it is important for us to stop playing games 
and to make sure we take care of Social Security.

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