Keep Security in Social Security
KEEP SECURITY IN SOCIAL SECURITY -- (House of Representatives - March 17, 2005)
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Price of Georgia). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, in the ongoing debate on Social Security, I think it is essential that we take the time to put a face on the people served by and protected by Social Security.
All of the numbers and charts help us make the outline of the arguments, but it is the letters that I receive from my constituents that show the real face of Social Security. I would like to take the time to show one of those letters, one of the 400-plus letters I have received.
A gentleman named Hector MacDonald from Laredo, Texas. It says,
"Dear Congressman Cuellar, As a member of the National Committee to preserve Social Security and Medicare, I am writing to urge you please oppose any legislation or plan that would divert dedicated Social Security payroll taxes into private individual accounts or in any way harm the benefits, structure or traditional role of Social Security.
As you know, President Roosevelt and Congress created Social Security in 1935 to protect retired Americans from experiencing a poverty ridden old age. And America's more than 35 million seniors have invested their hard earned money into Social Security during their long working lives. Social Security represents a covenant between government and its citizens. I therefore stand against the administration's policy and plans to reform Social Security through partial privatization or any other plan that would undermine the promise of the program's full guaranteed lifetime benefits.
One of my top priorities as a citizen and a voter is the protection of Social Security benefits for all current and future retirees. I sincerely hope among your top priorities as an elected official that you will also help defeat the privatization and other proposals that threatened our retirement security.
I urge you to work closely with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare and protect the benefits we have worked for, paid for and have earned. Very sincerely, Mr. Hector MacDonald" from Laredo, Texas.
Again, I have received many letters like this, and I think this letter, Mr. Speaker, speaks for itself. I received over 400 letters like this one opposing the privatization of Social Security.
I have taken the time to read these letters, and I have taken a great deal of time to carefully review the proposal and listen to all sides of the debate; and after a thorough analysis I have come to see clearly that this proposal to privatize Social Security does not pass my legislative test. That is, it will not make our families stronger.
The current proposal to privatize Social Security jeopardizes our safety net by pulling the security out of Social Security. It takes our guaranteed benefits and gambles them on a stock market. It threatens to pose benefit cuts, raising the retirement age. And finally it assures adding a tremendous sum to our existing $7 trillion debt.
Social Security has always been the one source free from risk and designed to reserve as a bedrock guarantee for our seniors.
The system was created and has served for generations as social insurance, not social investment; and we owe it to ourselves and our children, especially our seniors, to preserve that bedrock guarantee.
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