Social Security

SOCIAL SECURITY -- (House of Representatives - March 14, 2005)

(Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, Social Security was an innovative program back in 1940 when the first Social Security recipient, Ida May Fuller, opened her mailbox to find a check from Uncle Sam. To Americans back then, the Social Security program was a dream come true and real security.

For every Ida May Fuller, there were 42 younger workers contributing to their retirement; 42 workers for every retiree.

Now let us fast forward to today. Under the current system, your payroll taxes are immediately used to pay the benefits for today's retirees. This pay-as-you-go system works when many people are paying in and fewer are collecting benefits.

But today seniors are living longer and collecting more benefits. As a result, there are fewer workers paying into the system per retiree; 3.3 to be exact. And in the near future, there will be fewer than two workers per retiree.

Mr. Speaker, if we do not fix the system now, the only thing our children and grandchildren will receive in their mailbox is a giant IOU. Let us work together to provide real security for all Americans. The time to act is now.

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