[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 7348-7349]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, on the issue of Social Security, 
on the issue of total public debt, it has been suggested by Vice 
President Gore that we start using the surplus coming in from Social 
Security and borrowing that money to pay down what is called the debt 
held by the public.
  Just for a brief review, we now owe about $5.7 trillion total debt. 
That includes what I call the Wall Street debt, the debt held by the 
public, at about $3.7 trillion dollars. It includes what we owe Social 
Security at approximately $1 trillion and what we owe the other trust 
fund at approximately $1.1 trillion.
  The suggestion is that if we use the surplus coming in from Social 
Security and pay down the Wall Street debt, the debt held by the 
public, then the savings in interest, which represents about 15 percent 
of our budget now, pretty bad, we should pay down that debt, using all 
of that savings to apply to the Social Security Trust Fund so it 
becomes another giant IOU of a future promise that somehow the Federal 
Government will come up with the money, but it is sort of like taking 
one credit card and paying off another credit card because we still owe 
the money to Social Security.
  The suggestion by the Clinton-Gore administration and by Republicans 
and Democrats is that if we use all these funds by the year 2013 or 
2014, we will have paid down that portion of the debt held by the 
public, the $3.6 trillion. That sounds good.
  But what happens if we do nothing to take care of the long-term 
problem of Social Security? That debt starts to go back up again. So 
the paying off is just a blip. Because when the baby-boomers retire, 
they go out of the paying-in mode and go into the taking-out mode to 
take Social Security benefits. We change from a dramatic situation of 
no longer will Social Security taxes be enough to pay existing 
benefits. So we have a cash flow problem.
  Currently, in this country, our total debt represents 35 percent of 
gross domestic product. By 2013, if we use all of the money to pay it 
back, then it gets to zero on the debt that we owe the public. But 
eventually that goes back up to 65 percent if we borrow the money to 
pay the benefits that we have promised Social Security.
  Let me review this chart, sort of a Federal Government spending. The 
pie chart represents where the Federal budget is being spent this year. 
Starting at the bottom at 6 o'clock, Social Security is 20 percent. 
Going clockwise, another entitlement, Medicare, is 11 percent. Medicare 
eventually, in the next 25 years, will over take Social Security as a 
cost.

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  We have Medicaid, the health care program for low-income. The other 
entitlements represent 14 percent. Domestic discretionary spending 
represents 19 percent. Defense represents 17 percent; interest, 13 
percent of the total budget. Social Security is the biggest program. It 
is the biggest program in this country. It is the biggest program of 
any country in the world. And it has been quite successful, so it 
deserves our attention this presidential election year. So let the 
debate begin. Let us start talking about it. Let us increase our 
understanding of the predicament, of the problem, of the estimate by 
the Social Security Administration actuaries that Social Security is 
going broke.
  Here is why. We have a current surplus coming in from the Social 
Security tax. The actuaries estimate that somewhere between 2011 and 
2014, the cash flow problem will hit us and we go into the red. The red 
represents that we are going to have to come up with that money. 
Through cutting other government programs? I doubt it. Increasing 
taxes? It is going to be hard for politicians to do that. Increased 
borrowing? Probably the majority of this body, Republicans and 
Democrats, will say, ``Well, let's borrow the money because you can't 
see that as evidently what we are running as far as a debt that we are 
leaving to our kids and grandkids.''
  I am a farmer. I am from a farm. What we grew up doing is saying, we 
are going to try to pay down the mortgage so that there is a lesser 
obligation for our kids and grandkids. What we are doing in the Federal 
Government by not dealing with this problem of Social Security and 
Medicare entitlements is we are increasing the burden, increasing the 
mortgage for them to pay in their future years. It is not fair. Let us 
discuss and debate it this election year.

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