[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11926]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 11926]]

                        SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, the challenge before this body 
this week and the next several weeks is passing 13 appropriation bills. 
The challenge is based on whether or not we are going to stick by the 
promise that we made in the balanced budget agreement of 1997. At that 
time most of the Democrats and most Republicans voted for that balanced 
budget agreement.
  That balanced budget agreement included setting caps on future 
spending. Keeping that commitment means that for the next fiscal year 
we will not be spending any of the Social Security surplus.
  Now the question is--can we keep that commitment? Can we keep that 
promise? Last week we passed what we called a lockbox, again stating 
that we are not going to spend the Social Security surplus dollars for 
other government spending programs. Let us keep our commitment. Let us 
keep our promise to the American people. Let us not jeopardize current 
and future Social Security recipients by caving in to the big spenders.

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