[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14530]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             FIXING SOCIAL SECURITY IN A BIPARTISAN MANNER

  (Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I want to talk about the issue 
of Social Security. Social Security is an important issue that affects 
every one of us in this country, yet it has become a partisan issue. It 
should not have to be a partisan issue. We are hearing comments from 
the other side that basically say do nothing at all to fix and address 
Social Security.
  What we are proposing today is to try to come up with a consensus 
plan to at the very least take the surplus Social Security taxes that 
we are paying and spending on other government programs and apply that 
surplus to help workers prepare for their Social Security retirement 
benefit.
  At the very least, let us make sure that the surplus taxpayers are 
paying today and for the next 12 years is dedicated toward preserving 
their Social Security retirement benefit. That is what we are hoping to 
accomplish here by trying to have an olive branch of consensus and 
bipartisanship. That is what we hope to accomplish with this latest 
plan we have introduced.
  But more importantly, Madam Speaker, every year we delay fixing 
Social Security is another year where we add another $600 billion of 
debt to the Social Security problem. That is according to the trustees.
  Congress needs to be serious about this. We need to stop being 
partisan, and we need to fix this very important program.

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