[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23801]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



             SECURING AMERICA'S FUTURE FOR OLDER AMERICANS

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, this Republican-led Congress has made great 
efforts in restoring fiscal accountability and responsibility to our 
budget process. Now paying off the debt puts people before politics and 
leaves us more resources to take care of those programs that really 
matter, especially for our older Americans.
  Republicans want to use 90 percent of next year's surplus to pay off 
the national debt while locking away 100 percent of the social security 
and Medicare surpluses.
  By running surpluses in social security and Medicare, we make certain 
that funds are available to reform these programs so that when baby 
boomers retire, they have the resources to take care of their 
retirement needs.
  Mr. Speaker, the growing economy has handed us an enormous 
opportunity to lock away every penny of the social security and 
Medicare trust funds and to pay off the national debt. We have grabbed 
those opportunities to strengthen retirement security for every 
generation of Americans, and the Clinton-Gore administration would have 
us let those opportunities slip away. We cannot let them slip away.
  Even last year when Republicans said we wanted to stop the 30-year 
raid on social security, President Clinton said it could not be done. 
But we proved it could be done, and now every dime paid into social 
security is walled off where it cannot be spent on bigger government 
programs.

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