[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3433]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    UNVEILING 1999 DEMOCRATIC AGENDA

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to say that in just a short 
period of time over at the Library of Congress, President Clinton, Vice 
President Gore and Democrats in the House and the Senate will unveil 
our 1999 Democratic agenda which, once again, is a families first 
agenda. The centerpiece of our congressional agenda is to invest the 
surplus, to save Social Security and Medicare and pay down the debt.
  What Democrats are doing with this agenda is continuing on the path 
of fiscal responsibility by investing the surplus to save Social 
Security and Medicare and pay down the debt to keep our economy 
growing. With regard to Social Security, we reserve 62 percent of the 
projected budget surplus to preserve Social Security until 2055. With 
regard to Medicare, we reserve 15 percent of the projected surplus for 
Medicare, ensuring that the Medicare trust fund is secure for 20 years.
  We are paying down the debt, Mr. Speaker. We are investing a total of 
77 percent of the surplus in Social Security and Medicare to reduce the 
national debt to its lowest level since 1917. This is what the 
Democrats are all about.

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