Pete Stark: “I must say I am confused by some of the discussions here. I had assumed that the Republicans were pushing to privatize…”

“I must say I am confused by some of the discussions here. I had assumed that the Republicans were pushing to privatize Social Security and invest in things like the long-term capital corporation on Wall Street, but they are sending conflicting messages. They have been for Social Security since 1973, but none of them were around when it came into being, voted for it, and now they want to privatize it, and all I have got to do this morning is convince my mother that her Social Security benefits will continue. Mr. Speaker, the only thing I can tell her is to not vote Republican, because the record of the Republicans has been to dismantle Social Security since 1935 when they opposed it, and they still do. But the real issue that we are here debating today is how we are going to pay for the tax cut that we are going to debate tomorrow. And the only way that the Republicans could pay for their tax cut that they want to bring up tomorrow is to endanger the Social Security moneys today. They have got to take 10 percent. Let us forget about the 90 percent, and let us assume that is safe. Let us assume that nobody is going to steal that money. But the 10 percent we are talking about is going out for a tax cut. Now between now and tomorrow, with the way Republicans write bills in secret and pass them out of the Committee on Rules, they could increase that to 20 percent.”