[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WAKE-UP CALL FOR AMERICA

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it is a simple pronouncement 
this morning. This is a wake-up call for America. In today's headlines 
we have: ``United gets okay to drop pension funds.'' Earned pension 
funds, earned benefits now on the chopping block of America.
  I have great concern for America's airlines, and I will work with 
them as we have worked in the past after 9/11 to shore them up. But is 
it not a shame that America cannot invest in its pension fund and 
believe when it is time for retirement that fund will be there?
  Wake up America. Social Security is now falling to the same axe. This 
President wants to cut your benefits, the major social safety net of 
Americans. An invested process is now under siege.
  We think it is a divided question. It is not a divided question. It 
is a question for the middle class. It is a question for working 
Americans. It is a question that Democrats have stood fast. We will not 
see Social Security denied or destroyed. And wake up America, because 
the pensions of America are now under the vulnerable chopping block 
that anybody who needs a dime or a dollar will go into your pension 
fund, whether you are a private corporation or the public sector. Wake 
up America.

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