On the recordDecember 20, 2011
I thank the gentleman for yielding. One year ago, Mr. Speaker, many of us stood in this Chamber and pleaded with the leadership on both sides of the aisle not to put this payroll tax holiday in place. It was bad policy to put it in place, and it's bad policy to extend it. By the end of this year, we will have taken a quarter of a trillion dollars from the Social Security trust fund. And for what purpose? In our candid moments, we must confess that this effort is more toward securing votes than securing economic growth. {time} 1330 We may point fingers across the aisle, but it's a pox on both of our Houses. Democrats paint themselves as champions of Social Security; yet they blissfully endorse taking another $120 billion out of the Social Security trust fund. We Republicans paint ourselves as fierce guardians of the public purse; yet we're eager to pretend that the payroll tax holiday is paid for by fleeting fees and phantom spending cuts. We keep hearing that we're kicking the can down the road. We're $15 trillion in debt. Ten thousand baby boomers retire every year into a program that is already running in the red. Mr. Speaker, we're out of road. The responsible thing to do is to not extend this payroll tax holiday for 2 months or for 12 months.
