[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS NOT BUYING CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICAN SOCIAL SECURITY 
                                  PLAN

  (Mr. MELANCON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, America's editorial boards, both liberal 
and conservative, were not fooled by the Congressional Republican 
Social Security proposal unveiled this past month. The Republican plan 
would create private accounts out of the money now going into the 
Social Security trust fund.
  The Baltimore Sun called the plan ``the worst plan yet.'' While the 
Minneapolis Star-Tribune said, ``It is so weird and ill-conceived that 
it wouldn't merit comment, except that prominent GOP lawmakers have 
rallied around it.'' USA Today examined the plan and concluded, ``for 
every one part substance, the plan contains nine parts gimmick.'' While 
the New York Times wrote that the plan abandons ``efforts to restore 
solvency in order to resuscitate those doomed, unwanted, unwise private 
accounts.'' Finally, the Roanoke Times and World News opined, 
``Republicans touting the plan say it will stop the `raid' on the 
Social Security trust fund. But if they wish to identify those 
perpetrating that `raid' for the last 4 years, they need only look in a 
very large mirror.''
  Mr. Speaker, Republicans are no longer fooling anyone. It is time 
that they take privatization off the table.

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