[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2884]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   SOCIAL SECURITY IS GOING BANKRUPT

  (Mr. COOKSEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. COOKSEY. Mr. Speaker, perhaps the first question that needs to be 
asked is:
  Why does Social Security need to be saved?
  The response, of course, is that Social Security is going bankrupt.
  But the real question then becomes:
  Why is Social Security going bankrupt?
  The answer, as everyone knows, is because the baby boom generation 
will begin to retire in about 13 years.
  But then the real question becomes:
  Why should that matter? What kind of a system is it that goes 
bankrupt depending upon demographics, which is to say the number of 
people retiring compared to the number of workers?
  It is a good thing that private insurance companies are not run that 
way. They are not run that way because to do so would be to run an 
illegal pyramid scheme.
  Pyramid schemes are illegal for a good reason. They are positively 
guaranteed to go bankrupt.
  Democrats and Republicans are waking up to the reality of a system 
that should need saving but that does. We should work together to 
produce a system that works for everyone, young and old alike.

                          ____________________