Charles W. Stenholm: “I do not know of a single Member of this House who is proposing to cut Social Security. I do not believe there is anyone…”

“I do not know of a single Member of this House who is proposing to cut Social Security. I do not believe there is anyone who is proposing to do that. I certainly am not, and I know the gentleman from West Virginia is not; neither is the gentleman from Illinois. What some of us believe, though, is that unless we deal with the total fiscal problems of this country today--and I would like to put in another, a little different perspective--if we agree, and most of us do agree, that the private pension funds of this country are having some difficulties today in this unfunded liability status--and they do--then perhaps we have the same in the Social Security fund today. It is very true that, by talking about the Social Security trust fund as it is today, with current recipients, there is surplus. But all of us know that unless changes are made in the out years, that we are going to run into some additional problems, we are going to run into some unfunded liabilities. There are two ways to address that: One of them is what the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Pickle] will have, if he does not already, and that is to increase the retirement age for Social Security, so that we tell the young, our sons and daughters entering the work force today, 'You will not be able to retire at age 67 as under current law but you will have to retire at age 68 or perhaps at age 70, and prepare for it.' And if we do that, there will be no problem for anyone.”