Roy Blunt: “Mr. Speaker, I must admit I came to the floor partly because I was confused by the debate. This is eliminating a tax on…”

“Mr. Speaker, I must admit I came to the floor partly because I was confused by the debate. This is eliminating a tax on people who receive Social Security. That is what this is about. This tax was not on the books before 1993. It is not a tax that people used to pay. It is eliminating a tax for people who draw Social Security. I came to the floor, as soon as I got here, I heard that the surplus was gone. The deficit in 1995 was $200 billion. The surplus, using those same bookkeeping rules, that we have even moved beyond those rules and do not use those rules any more, is about $250 billion, that is a $500 billion, half a trillion dollar turnaround. We need to rectify these unfair things that have been added to the Tax Code. We do not need to take this as an excuse to come up with new government programs. We need to figure out how to do our business, the business of government, with the least tax dollars possible. And we certainly do not need to take those tax dollars from people who are drawing Social Security, from people, who, until 1993, did not pay this tax, a tax that is now paid by 10 million Americans, over the next decade that number will grow to 17½ million Americans who receive Social Security will pay this tax that we could eliminate today. This is a ticking time bomb.”