Date: 2005-03-10
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

To add insult to injury. if we are going to spend time talking about private accounts and that really seems to be the way the President has shaped this debate. that is the issue around which the President has shaped this debate. what is unbelieirable is that private accounts by anyones admission do not even solve the problem. Private accounts do not shore up Social Security. they do not improve its solvency. they do not solve the 2042 problem. They jubt create private accounts and privatize Social Security and pull the rug out from under peoples future retirement security. That is all they do. Just so that we can stick to the facts and not hyperbole. I will highlight the gentleman from New York . our ranking member on Ways and Means. The other day. he spoke to Mr. Walker and asked him about private accounts and his opinion. Mr. Walker. the Comptroller. said that as a carveout. and this was in front of the House Committee on Ways and Means. personal accounts financed with payroll taxes could worsen the programs financial stability. He said if it was designed as a supplement to traditional benefits. as an addon. that personal accounts would not cause a problem. And. essentially. the gentleman from Michigan said. well. what the President proposed was a carveout. That is clearly not acceptable under the Comptroller Generals concept. By the Presidents own experts admission. Social Security is not in crisis. Social Security is solvent until at least 2042. and then what is unfortunate is the hyperbole. because our colleague from North Carolina. who was spending some time on the floor a little while ago talking about their view. his view. on Social Security referred to the solvency issue and said that out in 2042 that Social -Security would be flat busted. I think was the term he used while I was listening to his debate. That is absolutely incorrect. Flat busted. My definition of flat busted means no money. gone. cannot provide any benefits at all. Then he. a few minutes later. said. well. it would provide 60 to 70 percent of benefits. The reality is that the factual numbers from the Social Security Administration itself. from the trustees who manage the Social Security trust fund. they say that at the earliest in 2042. Social Security would pay 80 percent of benefits if we do nothing. which you and I and others continue and the leader and the whip and the chairman of the caucus continue to stress. we are not suggesting that we do nothing. We are suggesting that if we are going to focus on this problem. that we call it a problem and not a crisis. couch it the way it is. and let us come together in a bipartisan fashion and sit down and hash out solutions. Our point is why spend time wringing our hands. gnashing our teeth. and stressing out our constituents who are really concerned about whether or not Social Security is going to be there for them talking about privatizing Social Security which is the vast majority of what we are spending our time talking about when it does not even solve the problem. That is the bottom line. When I had my town hall meetings. Democrats have held more than 300 town hall meetings. like the gentleman said. more than 80 percent of our colleagues in the caucus have had town hall meetings. there have literally been more than 300 of those. At so many of those. senior citizens. our wonderful senior citizens who literally we all stand on their shoulders today. you and I especially. our generation has been able to achieve what wehave been able to achieve by standing on their shoulders. People ask. why do seniors care ibout this issue? The President has said. people 55 and over are not going to have to worry about it. They care because they care about their grandchildren. They also care because they have a healthy dose of skepticism. What they lived through in their lifetimes has taught them not to take everything at face value. And they understand that when you have such a gargantuan. mammoth change to a system as large as Social Security. there is no way that you can trust that people who are 55 and older will not have to worry. They also understand that they need to be concerned about their children arid their grandchildren. That same AP story that the gentleman quoted a little while ago focused on the President and what he has said about this issue. The President commented on people 55 and older. At the same time he was saying they would not need to be concerned about his plan. he also said grandmothers and grandfathers need to be worried about their grandchildren .when it comes to Social Security. So at least the President acknowledges that people 55 and older have a legitimate reason to be concerned about this. We have got to make sure that we continue to disseminate the facts and not engage in the hyperbole that the Republicans have been.