[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 27281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                DEMOCRATIC PLAN PROTECTS SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, my constituents are perplexed. At the 
beginning of this session both Democrats and Republicans talked about 
how important it was to protect Social Security. Now we have the last 
appropriation bill being considered today and the Republican record is 
in. The Republican partisan budget uses gimmicks such as a 13th month 
and directed scorekeeping to spend Social Security money, even though 
they would say that they are not. They propose large tax cuts that 
clearly jeopardize our ability to meet our obligations under Social 
Security, and at the end of the day they have not extended the life of 
Social Security even one day.
  The President has submitted a plan that Democrats support that would 
extend the Social Security system by at least 16 years. If we all agree 
that Social Security is so important, that it is keeping our seniors 
out of poverty and giving them a decent opportunity within our 
community, then why are we not working in a bipartisan way to get a 
realistic budget that will really protect Social Security?

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