Richard Gephardt: “the decision that we make today is a decision that every American would understand. In our lives, in our families, we…”

“the decision that we make today is a decision that every American would understand. In our lives, in our families, we all face fundamental decisions. Often those decisions are financial decisions. We have to decide whether or not to have instant gratification and buy something that we would like to have right now, or whether to save funds in our family for retirement or for a rainy day fund or for the future so that we do the responsible thing for our families and our future. It really is the kind of decision that we are making today as a national family. We are deciding whether we want very desirable tax cuts, which the American people want and which we want, or whether we should wait on that decision until we are sure that our pension funds in Social Security are safe and secure and adequate to take care of the baby boomers which will be soon coming and wanting their pension from Social Security. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Democratic substitute that will truly save the surplus for Social Security first. Yesterday Republicans voted against a Democratic proposal to save all of the surplus for the Social Security trust fund. They said, 90 percent is good enough. 100 percent would be better, but 90 percent is good enough. I believe that was a wrong decision. Today they are raiding the surplus with ill-timed tax cuts. Once again they show their disregard for the long-term financial integrity of the most important program to the lives of every American.”