WALLY HERGER: “Mr. Speaker, the reason we are here this morning, and the reason we are bringing up this sense of a concurrent…”

“Mr. Speaker, the reason we are here this morning, and the reason we are bringing up this sense of a concurrent resolution to not, for the first time, be spending Social Security surplus is because of what we have done in the past. We have spent Social Security surpluses in the past. The fact is we have not voted out a final budget yet. Even the resolutions that we have put out that have gone out of here, the President has indicated he was going to veto them because we have not spent enough in them. Just yesterday, the President was out proclaiming that we had $115 billion surplus. The fact is we do not have $115 billion surplus if we figure in the fact that is Social Security. We have to begin somewhere. Let us begin today on voting out our budgets that are within the spending caps. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is about committing this Congress to end the raids on Social Security. Four months ago, this House passed a Social Security lockbox by an overwhelming 416 to 12 vote. Will it be easy for this Congress to not spend Social Security surpluses as Washington has done for the past 60 years? No. I have projects in my district that I would like to have funded. But, Mr. Speaker, we owe it to our constituents and our seniors to stop the raids on Social Security. Let us set a precedent in fiscal year 2000. Let us lock up the Social Security surplus. I urge an ``aye'' vote on this measure.”