[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16653]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SOCIAL SECURITY AND CAFTA

  (Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, the rhetoric we are hearing from 
the other side on Social Security and CAFTA is unbelievable. It is 
unbelievable because it is not factual. What we are proposing to do 
with Social Security is to stop the raid of the Social Security surplus 
and give that money to the worker to go toward their Social Security 
retirement benefit. If it does not stop the raid, then how come the 
CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, tells us that the deficit goes up 
by an equal amount? How can they tell us, Congress, you are either 
going to have to raise taxes, cut spending or borrow somewhere else 
because they will not get the Social Security benefit because it is 
going to workers?
  On CAFTA, it is a one-way trade agreement we have today. This makes 
it two-way. They already have free access to the American markets. We 
do not have equal access to their markets. They already have lower 
standards on worker rights, on environment. This raises those 
standards. If we do not pass CAFTA, they get a free deal. We get no 
deal. They have low labor rights. If we do pass CAFTA, we not only 
improve their labor conditions, we improve the enforcement of their 
labor rights and we give the American worker and the American economy a 
fair trade deal like we are now giving them.

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