[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4935]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       PROTECTING EARNED BENEFITS

  (Mr. NOLAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NOLAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to set the record straight here with 
regard to Social Security and Medicare:
  First of all, neither one of them are responsible for the debt and 
the current fiscal crisis that we find ourselves facing;
  Secondly, neither of them are entitlements. They're earned benefits 
that people started paying for the very first day, the very first hour 
they went to work, and they have every right to expect those benefits;
  Thirdly, there are some long-term problems with both, and they should 
and need to be fixed, but they can be done, clearly, without reducing 
the benefits.
  Let me remind all of us that nothing has done more in this country to 
lift more people out of poverty than Social Security, and nothing has 
done more to add more life and more years to life than Medicare.
  Mr. President, my fellow Members, we must stand up for Social 
Security and Medicare and protect those benefits going forward.

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