Gerald Kleczka: “I take the floor this morning to expose a caper which will be unfolding later today. A couple days ago I and several of…”

“I take the floor this morning to expose a caper which will be unfolding later today. A couple days ago I and several of my colleagues went to the Committee on Rules to ask to be made in order a balanced budget amendment which would exempt Social Security. However, the Committee on Rules did not report favorably on that, and will deny us a very clean vote on exempting Social Security from the balanced budget amendment. What they did was produce a sense-of-Congress resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 17, which would exempt Social Security from any bills coming out of committees. Know full well, this is the same mechanism, Mr. Speaker, that we declare National Pickle Week around here, so the Republicans are treating the trust fund for Social Security as if it were National Pickle Week. Know full well, it is becoming very clear to me and other people that the $423 billion surplus that currently is in the trust fund will be on the table once this balanced budget amendment passes. I support the balanced budget amendment, but let us not take that contract we have made with our seniors and destroy it because of this. The end result, Mr. Speaker, is that once this balanced budget amendment goes to the States, it will be defeated.”