Don Nickles: “Maybe my colleague from Iowa did not understand what we voted on earlier. Earlier we voted on repeal of the tax on…”

“Maybe my colleague from Iowa did not understand what we voted on earlier. Earlier we voted on repeal of the tax on Social Security which was passed by the Clinton-Gore administration, passed by Vice President Gore because he broke the tie, passed by every Democrat, but not one Republican voted for it. We had 58 votes, I believe, in the Senate to repeal it today. Those are the facts. There was a tax increase on Social Security that passed in 1993, and it was passed by every Democrat. Today we had an overwhelming majority who voted to repeal it. Those are the facts. Now we have an amendment before us that says let's double count interest savings even though we count the interest on Social Security surpluses. Let's double count and let's pretend that is going to make Social Security more solvent and, in the process, let's add a whole bunch of new benefits and see if we can't buy more votes and tell people we are going to give them something even though they know it is not going to happen. It has not been considered in the Finance Committee and Ways and Means Committee. Even though they know it is irresponsible and Social Security has big problems coming up in 13, 14 years, they say: Let's put more IOUs in and pretend it will make it more solvent. The budget experts say it will not work. The President in his own budget statement said it will not work. Mr. President, I yield the floor.”