OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005

Date: Sept. 9, 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Labor Unions Health and Health Care Education


DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 754 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the further consideration of the bill, H.R. 5006.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Smith) a few moments ago said that the Social Security system would go insolvent in 2018. This is simply wrong. In 2018, the Social Security system will have to begin to pay benefits from the interest accumulated on the trust fund. Sometime in the later 2020s, the Social Security system will have to begin to dip into the principal of the trust fund. That will not be exhausted until at least 2042, according to the trustees, and according to the Congressional Research Service, 2050. There is no Social Security problem until at least 2042 or 2050.

Now, we are told that we have to start paying back the bonds. Social Security lent the money to the General Treasury; that is true, it did. That is how you invest money. You invest in U.S. bonds. That is not a problem with the Social Security system. It may be a problem for the budget, but the fact is the system is solvent. Those are legal due-and-owing obligations, exactly as legally binding as a U.S. savings bonds is to pay to my colleagues or me if we own a savings bond.

In 1983, Chairman Greenspan chaired a commission which recommended increasing Social Security taxes, which we did in 1986, to precisely generate the surplus which we will start dipping into when the baby boomers start retiring, and that is a surplus which we will start dipping into in 2018. To say that produces a crisis is to say that we lied to an entire generation of people when we increased the taxes in order to produce that surplus to dip into later. We will dip into that.

Mr. Greenspan, of course, says it was fine to reduce taxes on the rich; and because we did that, we have a budget deficit. We cannot repay the bonds; and therefore we should reduce benefits starting in 2018. That is simply thievery.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

arrow_upward