[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12280-12281]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 RAIDING THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND

  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 this evening to continue what has 
become my weekly clocking of the continuing Republican raid on our 
Nation's Social Security trust fund.

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                              {time}  1715

  Four weeks have passed since I first came to this floor, unveiled our 
debt clock and our debt graphs and started documenting the truth to the 
American people about the Social Security trust fund.
  The truth is that House Republican leaders have turned their back on 
America's senior citizens and are raiding billions every day from our 
Social Security trust fund. When President Clinton left office, our 
Nation had finally moved into an annual balance of accounts, and we 
were yielding even a small surplus. Though we had a huge accumulated 
debt that we were beginning to pay off, our Nation's financial house 
was put in order.
  What has happened in just a few years under Republican leadership is 
that we have begun now to amass huge additional debts nationally, and 
there is only one place where they are going to get the funds to pay 
for the war, to pay for the tax breaks that have been given to the 
wealthiest in this country and the corporate cowboys that we see now 
being brought before congressional committees, and that is, our 
Nation's Social Security trust fund.
  Do the Republicans have a plan to stop this raid? No, they do not, 
and in fact, today, the total raid has run now to over $235 billion. 
That averages out to about $837 for every single American who will 
qualify for Social Security. When I first came to this floor 4 weeks 
ago, they dipped into the Social Security trust fund to a raid of $208 
billion, and in just 4 weeks, that has gone up an additional $27 
billion.
  The Republicans in this institution, at least their leadership, are 
in avoidance, hoping to dodge this issue in the fall's election. They 
will not even allow a debate on Social Security reform because they 
know that their risky idea of privatization to try to cover up what is 
really going on with the accumulated trust funds will be exposed for 
what it is, and that is, a gamble, not a guarantee.
  Just look at what has been happening in the stock market, if my 
colleagues want to know something about gambles. The American people 
deserve better. Our working families deserve better and our seniors 
deserve better.
  Working families have earned the right, not the privilege, the right 
to a secure retirement, and Republican leaders must put Social Security 
first, not dip further and further into the trust fund, violating the 
very lock box promise they made seven times not to dip into Social 
Security reserves in order to pay for other things.
  The urgency is real and especially pronounced in the wake of the 
Enron collapse, WorldCom and other corporate scandals. Thousands have 
already lost their retirement checks in the private sector across this 
country, and many have been forced to return to work or to extend their 
career.
  In his own case, President Bush yesterday in a White House press 
conference commented about confusing accounting procedures that were 
used to mask nearly three-quarters of a million dollars that he yielded 
from the early sale of stock in a firm on which he had sat, actually an 
oil company on which he had sat on the board. When the national press 
asked him how it was possible that he had sold this stock early and 
yielded those dollars, he said he still had not figured it out 
completely. That was reported in three different newspapers today.
  Let us reflect on that statement for a moment. President Bush, a 
former corporate director and member of the auditing committee of that 
corporation, when pressed about possible corporate bookkeeping 
practices, replies, I still have not figured it out completely.
  Should the American people expect that? We should expect more. We 
deserve more. America needs tough accounting standards for private 
sector plans, and it needs tough accounting standards for Social 
Security because these dollars have to be replaced somehow.
  So the time has come for financial and political accountability. 
Republican leaders should be held responsible and they will be in this 
coming November's election.

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