    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [October 23, 1999]
    [Pages 1868-1869]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    October 23, 1999

        Good morning. Today I want to talk about what we must do to meet one
    of the critical challenges of the next century: the aging of America.
        This week I sat down with congressional leaders of both parties at
    the White House to ask them to work with me to construct an overall
    framework for completing our work on the spending bills that reflect the
    priorities and the values of our people. The cornerstone of that
    framework must be paying down our debt, investing in education and other
    critical priorities, strengthening and modernizing Medicare, and saving
    Social Security for the retirement of the baby boom generation.
        If we value the financial well-being of our parents and
    grandparents, if we believe that all Americans deserve to retire with
    dignity, if we want to make sure we don't place an unfair burden on the
    backs of the next generation of young parents, then we must seize this
    moment of unprecedented prosperity and budget surpluses to extend the
    life of Social Security.
        Unfortunately, so far, instead of making the tough choices to save
    Social Security and extend its life to 2050, the Republican majority in
    Congress, especially some of the House Republican leaders, have been
    accusing the Democrats of spending the Social Security surplus. They've
    also been claiming that their budget doesn't spend the Social Security
    surplus.
        As it happens, neither claim is true. Oh, they've used a lot of
    budget gimmicks--like claiming the census and ordinary Pentagon
    expenditures are actually emergencies--in an effort to claim they're not
    spending billions from the Social Security surplus. But unfortunately
    for their argument, their own Congressional Budget Office has said
    they've already spent more than $18 billion of the Social Security
    surplus. But the main problem is, while spending this money, their plan
    doesn't extend the solvency of Social Security by a single day. I

    [[Page 1869]]

    think we can do better. The American people deserve more than confusion,
    doubletalk, and delay on this issue.
        So it's time to have a clear, straightforward bill on the table, and
    next week I plan to present one, legislation that ensures that all
    Social Security payroll tax will go to savings and debt reduction for
    Social Security. Over 15 years, this will allow us to pay down more than
    $3\1/2\ trillion of debt, to be debt-free as a nation for the first time
    since 1835 when Andrew Jackson was President.
        But my plan goes further. After a decade of debt reduction from
    protecting Social Security funds, all the interest savings from this
    debt reduction will then be reinvested in Social Security, extending its
    solvency into the middle of the next century. This is the first big step
    toward truly saving Social Security. It will take the Trust Fund out
    beyond the lifespan of the baby boom generation--no gimmicks, no
    budgetary sleight of hand; just the right choices that really add up to
    protecting the Social Security surplus, extending the life of Social
    Security, and paying down the debt by 2015.
        Let's remember what's at stake. Since 1935, Social Security has
    provided a solid foundation for retirement and lifted millions of our
    people out of poverty. But the number of older Americans will double as
    the baby boomers retire and the number of workers supporting each
    beneficiary will decline. Today, there are 3.4 workers for each Social
    Security beneficiary. By 2030, the ratio will be down to two to one.
    That will put a big strain on the system. If nothing is done, the Social
    Security Trust Fund will be completely depleted by the year 2034. We
    can't let that happen, and we don't have to. We can easily go back to
    2050.
        Social Security was created in the depths of the Depression. Today,
    we have the longest peacetime expansion in history, with 7 consecutive
    years of fiscal improvement and back-to-back surpluses for the first
    time in 42 years. This gives us an historic opportunity and a
    responsibility to protect and guarantee Social Security for future
    generations. Again, I urge the congressional majority to put aside
    partisanship and achieve something of lasting value for all our people.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 5:30 p.m. on October 22 in the Oval
    Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 23. The
    transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    October 22 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast.