Political Quotes

“on this first day of this new Congress, we must recommit ourselves to saving Social Security first. By adopting our Democratic rule, the House can stand both for Social Security and against fiscal insecurity. A few months ago, our Republican colleagues on this very floor attempted to fund election-year tax breaks out of the surplus generated by the Social Security Trust Fund. Their ill-advised proposal, which was ultimately not approved, would have used payroll taxes paid for by all Americans to fund tax breaks for a few Americans. That was wrong, and in 1999, by the adoption of this rule, we can prevent the compounding of that wrong. Those of us who have struggled to achieve a balanced Federal budget know that our job is not complete. For this year, we would have no balance in the Federal budget were it not for the surplus generated by the payroll taxes in Social Security. Indeed, this year, we would have a $51 billion deficit without those Social Security revenues. Our proposed Democratic rule would say that if one wants tax cuts, and I, for one, would like to see some tax cuts, pay for that lost revenue by closing tax loopholes and ending preferential treatment for the few special interests. But do not finance even more preferential tax treatment for the few by taking from the payroll taxes that are paid by the many, and which workers see go out of their paycheck every time they get a paycheck.”