Lee Terry: “I rise in support of our senior citizens. We are here today fighting on their behalf. Mr. Speaker, let me tell my…”

“I rise in support of our senior citizens. We are here today fighting on their behalf. Mr. Speaker, let me tell my colleagues, a few months ago when I was elected, I went to all parts of my city, my district, and talked to senior citizen groups. And in the low and moderate area of south Omaha, a group of seniors, I asked them, "What can we do for you?" Repeatedly they told me of their frustration of being taxed on their Social Security benefits. I heard that they listened to Roosevelt and that they worked hard, they did what they were asked to do, they paid into the Social Security system, but they had their pension from the meat packing plants and the other factories they worked at in Nebraska and they worked hard to save. But yet, today they are penalized for that. They were promised that they would have their Social Security benefits. But what this does by taxing it at 50 percent or even the 85 percent level that we are here to repeal today is we are confiscating their benefits. That is wrong. That is simply wrong. What that confiscation of their benefits does, that is a back-door way of means testing. It just astounds me that my friends from the other side of the aisle stand up and say they are against means testing, but they will certainly have an 85 percent tax bracket on half of those benefits based on the amount of income that they have from their pensions and their savings. That is wrong.”