[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7358-7359]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I would like to just briefly mention a 
couple of issues this morning.
  First, I would like to comment on some of the statements made this 
weekend, especially by the Senate majority leader, but by others as 
well, dealing with the issue of Social Security.
  This weekend, on a Sunday talk show, our colleague, Senator Lott, 
indicated that he felt that the issue of Social Security reform was 
dead for this Congress.
  Vice President Gore this morning expressed the fervent hope that this 
is not the case. I would join the Vice President in saying that it is 
not good public policy for our country to give up on the important task 
of reforming Social Security.
  The Social Security program has been a critically important program 
for our country. It has made life so much better for so many older 
Americans for so long. The problems of our Social Security system are 
born of success--not failure. The success is that people are living 
longer and better lives in our country. At the start of this century, 
you were expected, on average, to live to be 48 years old. Now, at the 
end of the century, you are expected to live on average to about 78 
years of age--a 30-year increase in life expectancy.
  For a lot of reasons--better nutrition, breathtaking breakthroughs in 
medical science, better medical facilities--a whole series of things 
contribute to the success. But the result of the success is that people 
are living longer, and that puts strains on the Social Security system. 
But we ought not shrink from the challenge of those strains.
  We can solve this issue. We can make Social Security solvent for at 
least the next 75 years and beyond. Let's not at this point decide that 
the 106th Congress cannot deal with the Social Security challenge. Of 
course we can.
  President Clinton and Vice President Gore made a proposal at the 
start of this Congress. Just as a starting point, they put forward a 
proposal to let us sink our teeth into this issue, and make it a 
priority.
  I know there is a lot of controversy about how you might reform and 
change and improve the solvency of the Social Security system for the 
long term. But I think the best way to approach this--I agree with Vice 
President Gore--is for both parties to resolve that this shall be a 
priority; we,

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together, should decide to save Social Security in this Congress.
  I ask the majority leader here in the Senate and others to agree with 
President Clinton and Vice President Gore that this ought to be job No. 
1 for this Congress. Let us together reform the Social Security 
program, and make the changes that are necessary to extend its solvency 
for the long term into the future.
  Again, while we do it, let me remind those who listen to this debate 
that the problems confronted by the Social Security system are not 
problems of a program that doesn't work. It works, and works well. They 
are problems resulting from longer and better lives for many older 
Americans in this country.

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