[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20817-20818]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CLOCKING THE RAID ON SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about Social 
Security, a program that will affect or is affecting every single 
American, the premier program initiated in the last century by the 
Democratic Party which has helped to raise a generation of our seniors 
out of poverty and keeps the current generation out of poverty.
  Most seniors in America receive upwards of around $580 per month. For 
them Social Security is a lifeline. Without Social Security and 
Medicare, they simply could not survive.
  Because the Bush administration and its allies inside this Chamber 
cannot afford to pay for the extravagant tax giveaways, especially to 
the superrich in this country like Kenneth Lay from Enron, who will get 
$245 million in a rebate this year, and because our country is moving 
into deficit, the Republicans in this Chamber are raiding Social 
Security every day, the Social Security trust fund, to try to make up 
that shortfall.
  Back in June when I started clocking the Republican raid on Social 
Security, at that point they had raided over $207 billion out of the 
Social Security trust fund after us having taken seven votes here that 
said we would protect the lockbox and not permit that kind of borrowing 
against the Social Security and Medicare trust fund; but to date, they 
have now, as of this week, October 16, they have now raided 
$318,369,863,013 from the Social Security trust fund. That averages out 
per American over $1,100 out of their pocket. To be exact, $1,104.36 
out of the funds that are deserved by every single American who has 
paid into this fund.
  As long as Republicans continue to raid the Social Security trust 
fund in violation of the promises we have made and passed here in this 
Congress, it is my intention to be here on this floor, clocking their 
raid with this debt clock. I also will be reviewing the history of 
those who created Social Security for our country and who historically 
opposed it, the Republican Party.
  In fact, in 1935 in the deliberations in the Committee on Ways and 
Means right outside this room here, the Republican Members of the House 
Committee on Ways and Means voted to kill the original bill that 
created the Social Security program that our parents, our grandparents, 
and great-grandparents had benefited from since the mid-1930s.
  When that bill moved to the floor, it was the Democratic Party that 
passed that bill, and I think it is very important that history be 
recorded for the present generation because if we look at what has been 
happening with the accumulation of additional debt in our country, and 
I would like to just put up an additional chart here, as we look back 
during more modern times to the early chart here focuses on the Johnson 
administration and the Nixon and Ford administration and the Carter 
administration. And we begin to look at when did this Social Security 
trust fund really start going into the red. It was during the Reagan-
Bush administration and now during the George W. Bush administration, 
billions and billions and billions of dollars. It was only during the 
administration of Bill Clinton and Al Gore that we began to move the 
Social Security trust fund back into surplus again.
  We have over $6 trillion of debt that we are financing in this 
country, much of it due to the giveaways that this administration has 
promoted. As an example, with the inheritance tax, Gary

[[Page 20818]]

Winnick of Global Crossing, with assets of over three quarters of a 
billion dollars, will get $366 million in a tax windfall. And where do 
my colleagues think that money is going to come from? It comes right 
out of here, the Social Security trust fund. Or Dennis Kozlowski from 
Tyco Corporation, the one that is in all that trouble, he is going to 
get $149 million. And where do my colleagues think that money is going 
to come from?
  This administration and House Republicans should put seniors first. 
They have earned it. They have earned it, and reverse this raid. We 
should continue to commit the savings in the Social Security trust fund 
as we have promised. It is important for us to tell the truth to the 
American people using these red numbers and this debt clock to 
demonstrate and remind ourselves what is really going on.
  The Democratic Party historically has been the party that believed in 
and supported Social Security as an insurance and disability fund for 
every single American. It is a condition of living in this country. It 
is not a privilege. It is a right.
  Mr. Speaker, we do not need to be borrowing from the trust fund in 
order to give benefits to the superrich. I hope as the elections 
approach, the public will remember and vote for the Democratic Party 
which has always supported Social Security.

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