[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8439]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, according to the Social Security trustees, 
the Social Security Disability program is expected to exhaust its trust 
fund in just 4 years. If the fund is exhausted and if nothing is done, 
only around 80 percent of the benefits will be paid out. Over 11 
million Americans could be impacted.
  Again, we have another government entitlement program headed towards 
bankruptcy. This is a program that costs as much as the annual budgets 
of the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Commerce, Labor, 
Interior, and Justice combined. I know how important this program is to 
many of my own constituents. With regard to Medicare, Medicaid, Social 
Security, and the disability program, tens of millions of people rely 
on these programs, but they are not structurally sound.
  Doing nothing is not the answer, and taking funds from the general 
revenue does nothing to provide the long-term stability that we need. 
We need real innovative reform that fixes our problems, that saves and 
strengthens these programs without piling up debt. If we don't act to 
save and strengthen these programs, our creditors will make the 
decisions for us down the road. We need to address these problems in a 
bipartisan manner. One party can't do it alone.

                          ____________________