Social Security Reform

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM -- (House of Representatives - February 09, 2005)

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Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding to me. First, let me join others in thanking him for his leadership on the Committee on Ways and Means as chairman for 6 years on the Subcommittee on Social Security, a resident and leader in Florida, which has a number of America's seniors who care so much about this issue.

Back in Texas I know that every senior I visited with in the Eighth Congressional District is worried about two things: their health care costs and their Social Security. Prescription drugs, the new technologies are doing just a wonderful job of creating a great quality of life, but it is so expensive. They are worried about getting generic drugs to the market faster so they do not have to pay so much for these pills. They want more preventative services under Medicare so they can detect that illness early and get treatment, prevent it rather than having it occur to them. And they want to make sure they can see doctors they know. All important issues on health care.

And they also want to make sure Social Security is there for them, for their children and for their grandchildren, with greater cost-of-living increases, that it is something that they can count on.

And for our seniors the great news is they are golden under Social Security. Virtually nothing that can even be contemplated will change for Social Security seniors, and that is the great news.

But our goal has to be to preserve Social Security once and for all for every generation. Once and for all, meaning not another Band-Aid, because we have gone through this exercise before. We have raised payroll taxes. We have raised the age, and then in another 20 or 30 years we are right back where we started. Let us solve it once and for all. Secondly, let us solve it for every generation. We know that seniors above 55 are in very great shape with this. But the baby boomers, we know there is not enough funding for them. And the young people today, I just do not see how we take money from their paycheck, a promise to have it ready for them when they retire and we know for certain we cannot deliver on that promise.

And one thing we will hear in this debate is we will hear lots of people talking about we are dismantling Social Security, we are making huge benefit cuts, there is a guaranteed risk to personal accounts within Social Security. But what those same Members of Congress will not tell people is that they have their own retirement invested in personal accounts just like the one the President has proposed. In fact, Members of Congress, our staffs and our fellow co-workers invest $15 billion every year, new dollars, into personal accounts. They are invested and grow over time just like the accounts we offer and propose for Social Security. And people back home always ask me, How come these personal accounts are safe and secure for members of Congress's families but all of a sudden they are a guaranteed gamble for us? How come it is good enough for your families, but not good enough for people who pay your salary?

It is a great question, and my thought is those who claim that personal accounts are such a guaranteed gamble perhaps ought to lead by example and withdraw from the Thrift Savings Plan and see what happens. My guess is they will tell us wait a minute, that is how I am going to build my nest egg. My question is why do we not allow other Americans, the ones who pay our salaries each day, to build their own nest egg as well?

What we are offering for seniors is to preserve it, but for young people we are offering them a choice. For the first time in their lives, they are going to get a choice in Social Security, real dollars in a real account or an IOU in some imaginary government ledger. Real dollars in a real account that build up over time that is theirs, for their retirement, and when they get to 65 they are not begging government for help in Social Security, they are not calling on their Congressman. They are calling on their financial adviser because they built up a nest egg that belongs to them and they have got that power.

And the fact of the matter is that back home in

Texas, I always ask two simple questions of the people I work with because they really have great questions on Social Security. And I ask them, personally, they are 50, or 60 years old, they are a baby boomer like me. If they could go back, way back when and put all of that money that has gone from their paycheck in a traditional retirement account and let it grow over the years, would they be better off today than they were under Social Security? And invariably they would say, I would give anything to have that money back. Then I ask, if Social Security could have put that money into real accounts, real dollars into real accounts, and let it grow over the years, would Social Security be better off today than the financial mess it is in? And invariably they answer the same way, yes.

Why not start now to build the same type of security? We know the right thing to do is to move from this pay-as-you-go system that will just run out of workers eventually and actually much sooner than we all wish, to move it to traditional retirement accounts within Social Security so that young people have real dollars in real accounts so that they can rely upon their Social Security. It is, I think, irresponsible by some to scare our seniors. It is irresponsible to ignore this huge crisis.

I call it a crisis because it gets so big so fast. We have got to move now. It costs us $600 billion a year every year we delay, $600 billion. The more we talk, it costs taxpayers. Why not, after decades of gabbing about this, let us come together and solve it? And I think too we have to be responsible for our seniors as well, focusing on their health care, making sure that they have their Social Security guaranteed with real cost-of-living increases. That is what the President's proposal does. And, Mr. Speaker, there are so many great ideas out there that have been proposed by Republican Members. I would give anything if any of our Democratic friends who care about Social Security would just come up with a plan. Just an idea. Just anything.

I read this week that they said Democrats will offer no Social Security reform, which is one of the most important issues facing our Nation and our future generations. They have got good ideas, bring them forward. Let us talk about it. Let us work out a solution in a bipartisan way. Let us think beyond the next election. Think about the next generation. I am convinced and optimistic and hopeful we can fix that.

Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, it is really sad to say that we only have one Democrat in the House today that had the courage to come forward and defy his leadership. And I might say that that particular Member, who is from the State of Florida, now has had a campaign run against him in his position in his district by a Democrat pack. To me that is absolutely unconscionable.

And I am glad the gentleman held those dollars up. I heard a town hall meeting on C-SPAN just recently by one of the Members, and he kept referring to cash in the trust fund. That is a myth. There is no cash in the trust fund. The trust fund is made up of Treasury bills, and we are going to be in a position where we are going to have to start cashing those in in 2018. And he talks about the cash, the Congress is going to have to find the cash in order to pay the benefits.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to yield, could I go back to what he said. Did he say there is a Democrat Member of Congress being attacked for being open to working with the President?

Mr. SHAW. Yes, as sad as that is. There are some bright people on the other side of the aisle that could really help us get this thing done. When I did welfare reform back in 1996, we finally got some help from the other side and President Clinton signed the bill. And that was one of the greatest pieces of social legislation that has come out of the Congress, I think, in the last couple of decades. It was late coming, but it came and we were able to do that. But in order to have the confidence of the American people, this has to be done in a bipartisan way.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I will tell the Members one thing the chairman has always said is that this is not Republican Social Security, this is not Democrat Social Security, this is not white or black or any other ethnicity Social Security. This is Social Security for Americans, period. We ought to come together as Americans in Congress on this issue and solve that.

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