[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WORKS DILIGENTLY TO PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, the Republican Party is working very 
diligently and very intensely with the Senate to try to protect social 
security. We have a lot of concerns about the President's proposal, 
which only protects or earmarks 62 percent of the social security trust 
fund dollars for social security.
  Many of us believe that we should put 100 percent of social security 
dollars into social security and not spend it on any other program; not 
for roads, not for bridges, not for congressional salaries, not for 
anything else. We hope that we can get the President to come around to 
our way of thinking.
  We also feel that we need to pay down the debt. We have a debt of 
$5.4 trillion. Which costs the American families, on an average for a 
family of four, about $2,000 dollars a year. That is $2,000 for a 
college tuition, for house payments, for a nice vacation, for a car, 
whatever the need of the family is. Now it just goes to interest on the 
debt. It does not even pay down the principal.
  These are things we think the President's budget ignores. We want to 
put it on the table. We are working in that direction. I hope that the 
President will decide to join us.

                          ____________________