John Shaw: “the gas tax is a use tax to pay for highways. What we are talking about now is Social Security. It is quite different.…”

“the gas tax is a use tax to pay for highways. What we are talking about now is Social Security. It is quite different. And to say that it is right to tax some folks and it is wrong to tax other folks on the same type of income and moneys that they are receiving under Social Security, which they have paid for, this is not a welfare program, this is an earned benefit. That is what Social Security is, an earned benefit under which all American employees have been duly taxed at the time it was earned and paid into the Social Security trust fund. We just simply have a difference of opinion. The gentleman from North Dakota wants to give his tax relief to people under $85,000. We think if it is wrong, it is wrong, it is wrong for all people; and that is an honest disagreement. But neither program, and I want to repeat this, neither the Democrat substitute nor the bill that is mainly under consideration here in any way jeopardizes the Medicare fund. That is a blue herring. It is weird that anybody would really come in to say this, when the bills, both bills, in black and white, specifically state that those funds will be put into the Medicare fund.”