[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9444-9449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           SENIORS TASK FORCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, the Democratic Caucus feels very strongly 
that seniors in America count and, in so doing, created a Seniors Task 
Force cochaired ably by Congresswoman Schakowsky of Illinois and 
Congresswoman Matsui of California. And we thought it was fitting 
tonight, this being the month in which we honor seniors, to spend an 
hour talking about the seniors of America.
  There are 45 million seniors in this country, and they have the right 
to ask us what have we done for them lately. And tonight, we're going 
to ask that question, and we're going to answer it.
  First of all, I think we should focus in on Wall Street, and our 
message is ``When Wall Street gambles, she loses.'' So part of what we 
want to focus on tonight is the reforms on Wall Street that will 
protect seniors in America.
  The biggest winners, we suggest, in the Wall Street reform are people 
over the age of 50, who hold 70 percent of the Nation's wealth. 
Oftentimes, seniors don't realize how big their assets really are or 
how valuable they are, and they become ripe for scam artists to take 
them on a wild ride that oftentimes means that they lose the very 
assets that they have held so dear. Seniors often have caregivers they 
share their financial data and information with and, oftentimes, can be 
exploited by those very caregivers.
  So we have created a Senior Financial Bill of Rights, which I would 
like to share with you right now. And the Democrats believe that there 
are four simple principles that we espouse on behalf of seniors.
  The first is the right to simple-to-understand and suitable financial 
products. Now, this would seem so very obvious, but I'm going to share 
with you a couple of stories that suggest seniors become the most 
vulnerable population in terms of being captured by an industry that 
has plagued us with all kinds of financial products that are not 
understandable.
  I first want to talk about a 67-year-old retired widow living alone 
in a home she's had for 24 years. She recently got a part-time, minimum 
wage job as a kitchen helper that helps with her expenses. She's 
getting $500 a month for that. She gets $973 a month in her Social 
Security benefits. And the balance due on her home is $90,000.

                              {time}  1930

  Now, her husband died in 2003, and she was having a hard time making 
those mortgage payments, so she went to Wells Fargo and got them to 
offer her a reverse mortgage. In so doing, she was able to pay off her 
regular mortgage and did not have payments for as long as she continued 
to live in the home, which appeared to be a good result.
  Yet, in 2007, agents working for World Savings in Orange County, 
California, found her 500 miles away in Yuba City, California. In a 
series of phone calls, they convinced her that Wells Fargo was 
demanding the repayment of her reverse mortgage because home values 
were declining to levels of less than the loan balance. They convinced 
her that Wells Fargo would foreclose if she did not refinance to pay 
off the reverse mortgage. She was confused and frightened, and she did 
not understand the reverse mortgage for which she had paid $11,000 in 
origination fees.
  So, before long, she was into yet another mortgage with an adjustable 
rate mortgage and was paying $4,000 a month at one point. Even the 
lowest payment option constituted 68 percent of her Social Security 
income--an absolute nightmare. She made three payments out of savings 
and then gave up. The trustee sale was first set for January 2, 2009. A 
legal aid attorney came to her benefit and was able to postpone the 
sale of her home, and negotiations continue today.
  This is a real story. She is a real person in California who was not 
given the right to a simple-to-understand and suitable financial 
product. That is, in part, what we are going to make sure happens as a 
result of the Wall Street reform, in part because we are creating a 
Consumer Financial Protection Agency so that this kind of activity 
can't continue to go on.
  In another case, a 90-year-old California retiree was sold a $100,000 
annuity in 2001. He would have to live to be 100 to have unfettered 
access to his money. Instead, he died at 91, and his

[[Page 9445]]

heirs were hit with an $11,000 surrender charge.
  In another example, an 83-year-old woman was sold a $125,000 annuity 
in 2002. According to her son, she suffered from dementia and believed 
she had access to her savings when she had to enter a nursing home. In 
fact, she would have to pay exit penalties of 25 percent if she 
withdrew more than 10 percent of her money in any year during the first 
6 years of the contract. So, when she died in 2004, her son had to 
pay--now, are you ready for this?--a $50,000 surrender fee.
  That's why we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency in this 
country, because that kind of activity goes on and has gone on. While 
you may suggest that it's ``legal,'' it's totally unethical, and the 
CFPA will provide that kind of protection for seniors.
  I am going to go to these other senior financial bill of rights later 
on in the hour. I would now like to yield to Congresswoman Kilroy as 
much time as she may consume.
  Ms. KILROY. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Speier. I appreciate 
what you had to say. My heart goes out to those seniors who have been 
abused by predatory lenders, by predatory practices, by scam artists, 
and by fraud. This is why we need to take action. As you say, the Wall 
Street Reform Act is going to help us to do just that--to protect 
seniors.
  When I think about what seniors need, they need, of course, personal 
security. They need to live in safe and livable communities. They need 
access to health care. With our recent health care bill, we are working 
to give seniors greater access to health care, to strengthen Medicare, 
to give greater choices in preventative medicine, with co-pays, and to 
close the Medicare doughnut hole. That is part of their security.
  Also, there is financial security so that they can live the rest of 
their lives secure that their money is going to be there, that their 
life savings aren't going to disappear because of the excesses and the 
risk-taking of Wall Street or that they will become victims of 
predatory lenders who convince them that they'll need reverse mortgages 
or that they'll need to take out loans on homes that are already paid 
for.
  This happened to a widow in my community. She was told that she 
needed to take out this loan. She didn't ask. She got cold-called by 
the predator and found out that she was tangled up in a financial mess 
that put her home in jeopardy. She is not the only one who has been in 
this position. We heard from the consumer law agency and also from AARP 
that seniors are frequently the victims of predatory lenders in this 
kind of practice. That's why the Consumer Protection Agency's taking a 
special look in protecting older Americans is so necessary.
  What did Wall Street and others do? What is their connection to these 
predatory lenders?
  Well, they got into this game of getting more and more mortgages, so-
called Alt A, subprime and other kinds of risky mortgages, of 
securitizing them and then selling them as investments. Some of them, 
like Goldman, would even bet against those investments in some of their 
practices. We found out that more and more Wall Street houses were 
using these subprime mortgages and the sales of those as securities to 
get more profits for themselves. It was profitable for Wall Street, and 
it was profitable for Wall Street executives. Compared to seniors, take 
a look at what the Wall Street CEOs are getting paid.
  Lloyd Blankfein: $9 million a year, or $24,657 a day.
  Ms. SPEIER. Would you repeat that?
  Ms. KILROY. $24,657 a day.
  Ms. SPEIER. Isn't that amazing.
  Ms. KILROY. The senior, $47 a day--average income--based on the 
$17,300 average annual income.
  Take a look at Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase: $16 million salary, an 
astounding $43,835 a day. There is John Stumpf. You mentioned Wells 
Fargo and their practice with the senior in your community. He receives 
$21.3 million, or $58,356 a day.
  That's incredible. That's more than some people make in a year. They 
were making this every single day and were putting seniors' life 
savings at risk.
  Now, many people got hurt in the Wall Street downturn, but seniors 
have less time to be able to reinvest and to make up that difference 
and to recover from what Wall Street did to Main Street. We need to 
work hard to make sure that seniors are protected from other kinds of 
scams, and we need to make sure they know, when they get somebody 
calling them, offering them mortgages that they didn't ask for, that 
that's an alarm.
  When they get somebody telling them that they have to act today, 
that's another danger sign. They need to be careful of balloon 
payments, of prepayment penalties and of other kinds of tricks and 
gimmicks that can make those loans very expensive, that can make it 
hard for them to get out of or that can make their money out of reach 
for a long time.
  That's why we need the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. That's 
why we need an office which will protect older Americans. It will make 
sure that those kinds of practices aren't happening and that, when 
seniors get financial information--and when all of us get financial 
information--that it will be clear and easy to understand, not with 
pages and pages of fine print.
  I was so proud of the credit card bill that we passed in our 
Financial Services Committee, that this body passed and which was 
signed into law to make credit card practices much clearer. We need to 
continue to work to make sure that seniors' financial security is also 
protected.
  Ms. SPEIER. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Ms. KILROY. Yes.
  Ms. SPEIER. When you were referring to credit cards, I was reminded 
that, in 1980, a credit card application was one page long, about 700 
words. Today, a credit card application--and, indeed, a contract--is 
closer to 30 pages. Imagine if senior citizens were trying to wend 
their way through 30 pages of legalese and knew precisely what they 
were getting.
  Isn't it true that the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is going 
to simplify that process for seniors and for all Americans?
  Ms. KILROY. That is one of the very important things it will do. It 
will take a look at all of the confusing documents.
  One of the charges that was made against one of the financial 
institutions in this country was that they were pushing some of their 
predatory lending products by having closing documents that were about 
as thick as a telephone book. Then they were pushing people, stating 
they didn't have time during the closings to actually read them: No. 
You've got to keep moving. You've got to keep moving. People were not 
really understanding what they were signing in these lengthy documents 
and in the fine print.
  This is an important financial transaction. For many people, buying a 
home is the biggest financial transaction they're going to make. It has 
to be a clear and fair document so that it's good for both parties in 
the transaction, so that it's a good deal for the mortgager, and so 
that it's a good deal for the person who is taking out that mortgage. 
That can only happen if it is a contract that is fair and reasonable in 
its terms so that people can understand what it is they're signing. It 
is very important for our seniors.
  Again, citing AARP and consumer law organizations, we know that 
seniors are most often the targets of that kind of predatory behavior, 
and that's what we have to be very careful of. Stand up with our senior 
bill of rights for financial security for older Americans.
  I yield back.
  Ms. SPEIER. I thank the gentlewoman for her outstanding comments in 
protecting the seniors of America.
  I now yield to my good friend and colleague from the great State of 
California (Ms. Richardson) as much time as she will use.
  Ms. RICHARDSON. First of all, I would like to acknowledge the co-
chairs of our senior task force--Ms. Schakowsky and Ms. Matsui. The 
work that we have been able to do in such a short period of time is 
amazing.

[[Page 9446]]

  Of course, to Ms. Speier from California, my neighboring home State, 
I thank her for organizing this hour that we have today.
  You know, seniors are the fastest growing segment of our population. 
Every year, as more and more of the baby boomer generation retires, the 
number of seniors in our country grows considerably. Currently, one in 
every eight people in the United States is an older American. Over the 
next decade, the number of older Americans will increase by 36 percent. 
That's 5.5 million people. In my district alone, there are over 52,000 
seniors. Older Americans are living longer and more active lives. Yet 
with older ages and longer lives, there come new challenges for us in 
Congress and in State and local governments to meet. Regardless of our 
ages or our generations, we have a responsibility to look out for our 
senior Americans just as our children and grandchildren will hopefully 
do for us one day.
  Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting a 37th Congressional 
District annual senior briefing. We had over 1,032 seniors. It was 
pretty amazing to be there and to see everyone coming in, excited to be 
there. Well, what I want to say is that it was really interesting to 
me: two-thirds of those individuals drove. Two-thirds of those 
individuals had computers.
  So, when we talk about seniors, it's not the end of the road. In 
fact, for many--and thankfully so--there are many, many good quality 
years ahead. What we have the ability to do on this task force is to 
ensure that they can have good quality lives and will not just simply 
stay at home, not really able to be productive.
  When we had our senior briefing, the seniors were excited, and they 
were in great spirits. We had a full agenda; and the biggest thing that 
we talked about, which we spent half of our time on, was understanding 
the health care bill that this Congress just recently passed and how it 
benefits them.
  The other things, though, that were unfortunate that I learned in 
that meeting were some of the troubles that some of my seniors were 
having--trouble staying financially secure in the midst of this 
recession. Ms. Speier talked about what has happened with the actions 
of Wall Street. Number two, obtaining jobs. Number three, finding 
affordable housing. For many seniors, they are downsizing and moving 
into other situations. For the amount of money that they have coming 
in, it cannot meet the cost of housing today. Finally, we talked about 
their getting quality health care.
  A 2009 study revealed that in California, the State that I come from, 
over 500,000 seniors are living single and are having a difficult time 
making ends meet, let alone enjoying their quality of life.
  As we move forward to continue addressing the needs of senior 
citizens, I am proud to be a member of this newly established seniors' 
task force. We are committed to preserving the rights, as has been 
talked about so far this evening, and in promoting the interests of 
America's senior citizens. The seniors' task force will be an excellent 
vehicle to ensure that the government is working for our seniors and 
for some of us, if we are so blessed to be, who will be coming forward 
as well.
  At the task force opening press conference last week, we unveiled the 
senior bill of rights as has been shown. This resolution is an 
expression of what seniors who have worked most of their lives to make 
this country a better place deserve in return. There are just a few 
things:
  One, financial security and stability. Two, quality and affordable 
health and long-term care. Three, protection from abuse, scams, and 
exploitation. We heard some examples of those this evening. Four, a 
stronger economy now and for future generations. Five, for a safe, 
livable community with safe transportation options.

                              {time}  1945

  This Congress has recognized the needs of seniors, and we have taken 
it on straight, without hesitation, that swift and bold action is 
needed.
  In the very first days that Congress was in session for this 
particular 111th Congress, we passed the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act, also known as the Recovery Act, and many seniors 
included in that received $250 that was to go towards helping to cover 
the costs, the rising costs, that many of our seniors are facing.
  But then we took another action just about a month or so ago, and 
that was concerning health care reform. This Congress, this Democratic 
Congress, took the leadership, without much other assistance except by 
our help from the administration, to make sure that we could pass 
health care reforms that would dramatically increase the quality and 
the affordability of care that our seniors would face.
  The health care reform that we did over the next few years will help 
close the Medicare doughnut hole that keeps many seniors from getting 
the prescription drugs that they desperately need. The average senior 
will save $250 in 2010, $750 in 2011, and over $3,000 in 2020 on 
prescription drugs.
  However, one need that we know is also being overlooked and I have 
been trying to take some leadership on is the fact that many of our 
seniors are still working; some because they want to, because they have 
the ability to and there is much left to contribute, but others because 
they have to.
  These economic woes that our seniors are facing are based upon many 
factors. Over 40 percent of the seniors in my district rely upon Social 
Security as their only source of income. I know many seniors who are 
pinching pennies simply to eat. This isn't acceptable. In fact, it is 
not even American. There are many seniors in my district who need to 
continue to work in jobs in order to maintain financial security.
  The ongoing economic downturn, which Wall Street greatly, in fact, 
caused, that national economy that has now adversely affected millions 
of workers in various age groups has disproportionately burdened 
workers over the age of 55. Older Americans are experiencing difficult 
times, and only 55 percent of the jobless older workers have been there 
long enough to be able to have an extended tenure beyond January of 
2008, compared to 72.6 percent of those in the age group of 25-54. A 
larger share of jobless older workers were paid lower wages in their 
new full-time jobs, compared to people who are in the age group of 25-
54.
  We have a responsibility. We have a duty to provide employment 
opportunities to senior citizens, who still have much to contribute. So 
I brought forward a bill to add to the great Senior Bill of Rights that 
we have brought forward, which is H.R. 4819, Expanding the 
Opportunities for Older Americans Act of 2010.
  This bill responds to the need of senior citizen employment 
opportunities. It will expand senior employment programs for older 
Americans and create 40,000 new jobs. This bill will also lower the 
eligibility age for participating members of our society, and it will 
also eliminate some of the requirements that work against seniors. For 
example if a senior happens to be married and their spouse is working, 
many of the current programs that other spouse is not able to take 
advantage of, and that is wrong.
  We must ensure that seniors have financial security and that this 
economy works for them. We must uphold our end of the bargain to our 
seniors, who have sacrificed and dedicated so much to this country 
throughout their lives.
  I urge all of my colleagues to join us in this Senior Task Force, not 
only tonight, when we have started the discussion, but as we move 
forward the Senior Bill of Rights and many other pieces of legislation 
that will make a difference.
  Ms. SPEIER. I thank the gentlelady from California.
  The numbers of seniors in our country is growing exponentially, in 
part because some of us who are baby boomers are growing older and 
reaching that age ever so quickly. But I note that while there are 40 
million Americans who are now 65, in 10 years that number will more 
than double to 88.5 million Americans who will be over the age of 65. 
So making sure that seniors are protected is going to be a more and

[[Page 9447]]

more significant responsibility for Congress to ensure.
  You mentioned the doughnut hole. For seniors who are on Medicare, 
health care reform has been somewhat challenging, because they didn't 
know what was in it for them. Part of what we are talking about is what 
have you done for seniors lately.
  The health care reform measure has huge benefits for seniors that are 
important to underscore, one being that if you do find yourself in the 
doughnut hole by this fall, you will receive a check for $250. If you 
are in the doughnut hole come the first of January, you are going to be 
able to buy your prescription drugs at 50 percent of what the retail 
costs of them are. And the greatest news of all, and this is a benefit 
for senior citizens as well as every one of us, and that is for 
preventative care, there will no longer be a copay.
  That kind of gets lost in translation from time to time. But I just 
had, and I am proud to admit it because I think we all should have 
colonoscopies after age 50, but I just had a colonoscopy. I got the 
bill, and we all kind of experience sticker shock when we see those 
health care bills arrive at our home, and, thank God, we have health 
insurance, but my bill was over $3,000 for that procedure. Now, a copay 
on that procedure is like $600.
  But moving forward, whether it is a colonoscopy, a mammogram, any 
kind of screening for cancer, that will no longer carry with it a 
copay, because we want to incentivize seniors and younger people to 
actually take advantage of the preventative services that are out 
there, that really prevent people from getting sicker and requiring 
more health care and more hospitalization.
  So lots of good things for seniors are in health care reform.
  Ms. KILROY. That is absolutely correct. If the gentlelady will yield, 
I congratulate you for taking care of your health and getting those 
preventative measures taken care of. Even though we don't like to do 
them, they are good things to do.
  Those kind of copays, when you think about what seniors need to pay, 
with the more frequent medical testing perhaps, or higher costs of 
prescriptions, maybe taking more prescriptions, therefore more copays 
on those, the senior cost of living could be higher than the cost of 
living index for maybe the general population. That is why it is 
important that they have the economic security that Representative 
Richardson spoke of.
  For seniors, it is sort of like a three-legged stool. One leg of the 
stool is Social Security; one leg of the stool is personal savings, 
which we should all be thinking about as we get older; and one leg is 
also maybe a private pension. Yet this economic downturn has hurt that 
stool in all of those areas.
  With more people unemployed, fewer people are paying into the Social 
Security system, so that hurts the system as a whole. That is why it is 
so good that we are focused on jobs and working on jobs, to get more 
people doing what they want to do and need to do to support themselves, 
but also being part of the Social Security system.
  We know that the Wall Street abuses have hurt in many cases pension 
funds who invested in risky products, who were sold these products by a 
company, say, like Lehman Brothers, who then disguised what was going 
on by these Repo-105 practices, just taking some of the downside that 
should be on their balance sheet and hiding it when the quarterly 
reports were due. That has hurt the pension funds that the State 
employees are involved in in the State of Ohio. It is making that fund 
take a large economic hit that somehow we have to make up for, or 
people will not have the same kind of pension benefits that they 
thought they might have.
  Then there is also the personal savings aspect too. We have all seen 
the 401(k)s have become 201(k)s, as we all know, because of the risky 
behavior that Wall Street engaged in, and because maybe we don't have 
the kind of financial literacy we should have in this country.
  Again, back to the Consumer Protection Agency and the agency that 
will protect older Americans that will focus on that, that will make 
sure the information is getting to people in clear terms, so that they 
know that when they are investing something, that the person they are 
investing with is looking out for their interests, for the client's 
interests, not just simply being selfish and selling them something 
that is not good for them. And it will help us by ending taxpayer-
funded bailouts for Wall Street for any future damages like that.
  We want to make sure that we are working hard to stay on top of this 
thing. But as much as Congress can do, we can't do it every day the 
same way that an independent office of consumer protection can do, that 
would have that as their charge and every day be taking a watchful eye 
on the practices of the investment industry to make sure that these 
kinds of abuses aren't going on anymore.
  Ms. SPEIER. I thank the gentlelady from Ohio.
  You know, it would be great for us to focus for just a minute on the 
prescription for Wall Street reform for the 40 million seniors in 
America and just kind of list out the protections that are in the Wall 
Street reform.
  As you mentioned, the office of financial protection for older 
Americans, this is going to be a huge benefit for seniors, because they 
are going to be able to call this office and say, you know, I have just 
been offered X. Is this something that makes sense?
  Let me give you an example. Sergio Del Toro, he has been banned from 
the securities industry for defrauding a 90-year-old Minnesota nursing 
home resident of $511,000. Mr. Del Toro recommended that the elderly 
man put his entire net worth into the stock of a firm called Third 
Dimension, for which there was no market or publicly quoted pricing. 
Mr. Del Toro's alleged motivation? A 15 percent commission, equal to 
$76,000.
  Now, as part of Wall Street reform, one of the standards that is 
going to have to be met is, is there a net tangible benefit to the 
client? Clearly, in this case there was no net tangible benefit. What 
happened was this nursing home resident lost his whole savings of 
$500,000, and Mr. Del Toro was the recipient of $76,000 in commissions. 
Mr. Del Toro is banned from the industry now, but this is another 
example of why having Wall Street reform is so necessary.
  I now yield to one of our newest Members of the House, Mr. Deutch 
from Florida, to have him offer up his thoughts.
  Mr. DEUTCH. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my Democratic colleagues to discuss the 
challenges facing seniors in America today. I would like to thank the 
gentlewoman from California, Representative Speier, for her ongoing 
commitment to our Nation's seniors, as well as Representative 
Schakowsky and Representative Matsui for their outstanding work as co-
chairs of the Senior Task Force, an effort launched by the Democratic 
Caucus to protect the health and financial security of our Nation's 
eldest Americans.
  Today I would like to focus on an issue of great importance to me and 
the many residents in the 19th District of Florida, and that is the 
issue of Social Security.
  Social Security is a sacred trust that provides over 50 million 
Americans each year with a measure of financial security. In my 
district and across the country, Social Security guarantees seniors the 
ability to enjoy their golden years free from abject poverty or 
financial reliance on their children.
  As the representative from Florida's 19th District, I have the 
privilege of serving so many seniors who fought in World War II and 
rebuilt this country after the Great Depression. These wonderful 
Americans have worked hard every day of their lives, and for them, 
Social Security does what it was designed to do--it provides them with 
a secure, basic source of income after a lifetime of hard work.
  Seniors know they can count on Social Security to never be a day late 
or a dollar short, and they know that checks will never come back 
marked with ``insufficient funds.''

[[Page 9448]]



                              {time}  2000

  Many of my constituents saw their lifelong retirement savings vanish 
overnight due to the irresponsibility on Wall Street that led into this 
recession. And many of them lost all of their savings to predatory 
Ponzi schemes. However, for them, one thing is certain in this time of 
economic uncertainty: Social Security is still there, on time, every 
month. This critical program is working just as it should for millions 
of people.
  Mr. Speaker, if President Bush and the Republican Congress had their 
way and had enacted a risky privatization scheme for Social Security, 
the savings of all America's seniors would have been gambled away on 
the stock market.
  Today, I stand here with my Democratic colleagues to say that we will 
never let the private market gamble away the financial security of our 
Nation's seniors and our Nation's most vulnerable. Mr. Speaker, it's 
clear the stock market is no place for Social Security. It would take 
the security out of Social Security.
  Just this year, the Republican alternative budget called for cuts in 
payments to seniors and a risky privatization of the overall system. 
Clearly, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle didn't run this 
idea by my constituents who saw what happened to their pensions 
invested in the private market.
  The large, vibrant senior communities of south Florida share a common 
value: that a lifetime of hard work should be honored with a secure 
retirement. I stand with them when I say that Social Security must 
remain a reliable program, not just for this generation of seniors, but 
for generations of Americans to come.
  To the opponents of this popular program, I say that we will 
tirelessly fight for the due benefits of our seniors who have spent a 
lifetime of earning. We will not yield. We will not back down. And for 
this generation of seniors and the next and the next after that, we 
will not let Social Security be privatized.
  And while this social program keeps millions out of poverty, the work 
of improving how we care for our Nation's retirees has not ended. The 
current cost of living formula that ties seniors' COLA to the Consumer 
Price Index tracks inflation across the economy. Our Nation's economic 
downturn has prevented America's seniors from receiving an adequate 
cost of living adjustment, and that's not right.
  The Consumer Price Index for wage earners tells us that goods and 
services are less expensive than they were in the third quarter of 
2008, but the seniors in my district and across America know that their 
prices continue to go up. The fact is, our Social Security cost of 
living calculator is insufficient and just doesn't reflect the true 
cost of living for seniors. The measurement of determining seniors' 
cost of living should be indexed to, well, seniors' cost of living.
  I have trouble explaining to my constituents that even though their 
part B premiums went up and their copay went up, and even though 
prescription drug prices are through the roof, they don't get a cost of 
living increase because the price of cell phones and supporting 
equipment went down.
  In the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, seniors 
are losing their pensions, watching their home values drop. And, on top 
of all that, the agenda that the Republicans have put forth threatens 
to privatize this sacred trust.
  And while this Congress has had to make the hard choices after 
inheriting an economy in shambles, the men and women serving our 
country on the commission, on the task force looking at the challenges 
facing our country fiscally, have the unenviable task of reducing our 
deficit and getting our national debt under control.
  I would simply remind the distinguished members of the commission 
that before this great recession, Social Security has run a surplus 
every year since the 1980s and, in fact, today has $2.5 trillion in 
reserves.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of America's seniors, I would say to the 
members of the commission that a deficit commission should not undercut 
a program that contributes nothing to our deficit.
  Just a month ago, the good people of Florida's 19th District sent me 
to Congress to fight for our seniors, our community, and our values. 
And I'm happy to tell them that, with my Democratic colleagues here 
today, this Congress is making these values a top priority.
  And I'm pleased to reassure the seniors in Palm Beach and Broward 
Counties that, as a part of the Seniors Task Force, I'll be a tireless 
defender of Social Security and Medicare and a dedicated advocate for 
policies that protect the health and financial security of America's 
seniors.
  I'm thrilled to stand here with my colleagues.
  Ms. SPEIER. I thank the gentleman from Florida for his passionate 
commitment to seniors.
  I'd like to address this whole issue of mortgages. You know, so many 
Americans have seen their homes being foreclosed on over the last 2 to 
3 years. The numbers are staggering. We're talking about, 7, 8, 9 
million homes. And I think that there's a misconception that somehow 
those are all younger families, but the truth is many of these people 
are senior citizens.
  One of the protections in the Wall Street reform is that we are going 
to deal with banning predatory mortgage lending, and I want to just 
share with you one example.
  This is back in 2000, at the age of 57, Willie Howard, who, at long 
last, became a homeowner. He had this tiny house here in Washington, 
DC, of 963 square feet. Now, Willie never learned how to read, so he 
proved to be an easy touch for refinancing offers as the housing bubble 
inflated.
  By May of 2005, his $108,000 loan had ballooned to $137,000 because 
he had been courted by mortgage brokers who wanted to suggest that he 
could, in fact, save more money.
  By October of 2006, after four more refinancings, Mr. Howard's loan 
balance had ballooned to $238,000. Now, half of the increased debt came 
from $51,000 in points, fees, prepayment penalties, and negative 
amortization. So it really was all about the scam artists; in this 
case, a mortgage broker who wanted to churn. By getting him in and out 
of loans, he was able to make more money as a mortgage broker, and poor 
Mr. Howard, who could not read, went from having a $108,000 loan to a 
$238,000 loan. And as Mr. Howard said, the problem with the system is 
that the broker had no obligation to act on behalf of Mr. Howard's best 
interest.
  So what does Wall Street reform do to help Mr. Howard and seniors 
across this country? Two things. It requires that they show a net 
tangible benefit to the client consumer and that that client consumer 
has the ability to pay. Now, those two tests couldn't possibly have 
been met for Mr. Howard by that mortgage broker.
  So, as a result of Wall Street reform, seniors and Americans across 
this country are going to have recourse. And, in this case, Mr. Howard 
would be in a position to have that contract rescinded, have his costs, 
his consumer costs, be they attorney's fees or anything else, paid for, 
and have the opportunity to have that particular loan reworked in 90 
days or less. That's the kind of benefit that accrues to seniors in the 
new reform.
  The final area that I thought would be worth us spending a little 
time on is the other rights that benefit seniors, and that's the right 
to know that Wall Street bankers will not gamble away their retirement 
savings. Both Mr. Deutch and Ms. Kilroy had spoken about the 401(k)s 
turning into 201(k)s. And as clever as that sounds, it's tragic when it 
happens, and it's happened to senior Americans across the country.
  I'm going to talk to you about a senior citizen in my district. This 
is a real story of a senior citizen who spent his entire life as a 
doctor providing health care to those who did not have resources. He 
provided health care in a county hospital setting, and he made, you 
know, a good salary doing that. So he retired, had a comfortable home, 
had $1 million in retirement in his 401(k).
  Now, he was using a financial adviser, one of the slick financial 
advisers that we've heard too much of over the last couple of years, 
much like the

[[Page 9449]]

employees at Goldman Sachs who would sell a risky investment to someone 
but, on the other hand, would short it for their personal gain.
  This particular constituent had the situation where his financial 
adviser was not looking out for his best interest. So, over the course 
of the financial meltdown, this constituent lost three-quarters, three-
quarters of his 401(k). Now, that's just outrageous on so many scores, 
but particularly so when you're dealing with the 401(k)s of senior 
citizens who don't have the luxury of trying to find other ways of 
making up that money, don't have the ability to go back to work.
  And our financial service reform is going to make sure that that 
particular activity of Wall Street gambling away retirement savings can 
no longer happen because we do have the standards put in place.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________