On the recordJuly 24, 2019
I have a great deal of sympathy for the people we are trying to help in H.R. 397, and that is one of the reasons why I feel we need a real solution to this. Obviously, the pension plans are in such horrible shape that to continue with the current system and to continue with this bill would be a very expensive bailout for the taxpayer. Unlike some of my colleagues, I realize that the taxpayer will ultimately have to put something in thes plans. And the reason I say that is the multiemployer pension plan system was set up by Congress in the 1950s, and my guess is, the way it was set up, it is not surprising that it will fail. While the Congressmen who are at fault for this have long since retired and left us, we as a successor Congress, are supposed to do something. However, first of all, I don't think this is a sincere proposal. If it was a sincere proposal, it would have been passed when President Obama was President, and when the Democratic Party was in total control around here, about 10 years ago. We are going to have to, as part of this plan, change things in the future so we don't begin to run up more debt immediately. We are probably going to have to have the taxpayer do something to make up for the damage that has been done in the past, but to pass this bill will only delay that, in that it is really, quite frankly, just a political move.…
