Richard Gephardt: “I rise to urge a debate about the budget and Social Security. Tomorrow Republicans mark up their budget in committee.…”

“I rise to urge a debate about the budget and Social Security. Tomorrow Republicans mark up their budget in committee. Next week they put it on the floor for consideration. Their budget will reveal the following facts: Republicans spent $4 trillion in surplus funds. They created deficits as far as the eye can see. They drained $2 trillion from Social Security, breaking promises made repeatedly to safeguard these funds. Their policies reversed 8 years of progress. Their budgets brought a historic reversal that impacts people's lives. Fifteen months ago, unemployment was under 4 percent. We were having serious discussions about what we were going to do with this huge and mounting surplus. How much should we save for Social Security? How much should we put into Medicare? How much should we invest in a prescription drug program? Should we put more money in education? Should we pay down more debt? And there were many who said that we could do all of it because the surplus was so enormous. So where are we today, March 12, 2002? We are not discussing what to do with the surplus. The surplus is just about gone. Today we are having that tired, troubled discussion we had for much of the last 20 years: What are we going to do about the deficit? How are we going to save Social Security? What are we going to do to save Medicare? And how are we going to take care of health insurance for the unemployed?”