Holcombe Rucker Park National Commemorative Site Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I just wanted to get up and explain why I will be voting against the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act a little bit later tonight. I am going to try to keep the volume down and maybe the frustration down a little bit more tonight than I did yesterday, but I thought it was important to again explain why sometimes the tough vote is the right vote.
To kind of lay the groundwork, I am from North Carolina. I am up for reelection in November of 2026. I have heard some people walk up and down the hallway and say that they really oppose the bill, but they are up for reelection in 2028 or are up for reelection in 2030, and they are worried about the politics of it. I never worry about the politics when I am convinced in my heart of hearts it is the right decision, and let me explain why.
The Social Security Fairness Act is trying to address what I think is an inequity and a problem. Unfortunately, it is doing it in a way that is at the expense of $200 billion out of the Social Security trust fund, without a dime offsetting it.
Now, some of my fiscal conservative colleagues have said: Well, no, it is not really depleting it because it is the Social Security trust fund. So it is not adding to our debt.
What they are forgetting is that when the Social Security trust fund becomes insolvent, the fairies don't come back and replenish the Social Security trust fund. We don't have trust fund fairies. What we have is a debt that is already over $33 trillion that we are going to be expected to write another check out of, and we are headed toward a debt crisis.
This bill, by everyone's agreement--even those who are going to vote for it tonight--pulls forward its insolvency. The consensus right now is that it is going to occur 9 years from now. This pulls it forward by 6 months.
So I have to vote against this bill and not because I don't ultimately want to fix an injustice for a very small percentage of people who deserve a few hundred dollars more a month, but the way we have gone about it, it is going to be costly, and it is being done at a time when we are not plussing the accounts back up.
I feel like, in my vote-casting, I am likely to be on the losing side. I understand that. None of these amendments are going to pass because, if they do, the bill fails, and we know that. So, for anybody who is pulling for one amendment or another, let me just show you how I can tell the future: Not a single one will pass. This bill will be voted out this evening, and it will be sent to the President's desk. Once the President signs it, he will have guaranteed that the Social Security trust fund will become insolvent 6 months sooner. Think about it this way: 8\1/2\ years from now versus 9 years from now. It is going to pull $200 billion out, causing that to occur.
It is actually going to provide some benefit that I don't believe the beneficiaries deserve. It is really confusing that handful or that segment of the people who will get the benefit and is casting them into a group that, I think, arguably, maybe doesn't deserve the benefit. Anyone who should, we can take care of, but it is not $200 billion. But that is what happens when you don't have a single committee hearing on a bill. That is what happens when it comes from the House through something called a discharge petition. Bypassing all the processes, it comes to the Senate, and we never even have a hearing.
We are going to have a vote later today for a $200 billion raiding of the Social Security trust fund that is going to bring insolvency forward from 9 years to 8\1/2\ years, and not a single vote or a single hearing has been held in a single committee on Capitol Hill.
Now, folks, if you can't agree on the finances, if you can't agree on the fairness, can we all agree on the process for something as weighty as this? We should have given it the justice it deserves and held a hearing on it.
For that reason, I am going to vote against it, and then I will be standing there, reminding my colleagues ``I told you so'' when I am also trying to help them fix the problem they are about to vote on to create.
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