March 3, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 42 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages H1465-H1468]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the 
Chamber about one of the most important issues that the Nation faces, 
and that issue has only been underscored by the issue of the 
coronavirus, and also by the issue of inequality that exists today in 
this great country of ours, the wealthiest nation in the history of the 
world.
  I am pleased to announce the number of people who have risen and come 
to support Social Security 2100. It is called Social Security 2100 
because we address the needs of Social Security into the next century 
so that Social Security will be solvent beyond 75 years and address the 
vital concerns of each and every American.
  In 2019, 64 million Americans received Social Security benefits 
totaling over $1 trillion. For nearly one-third of our elderly 
beneficiaries, Social Security benefits are 90 percent of their total 
income. Two-thirds rely on Social Security for the majority of their 
income. The average benefit in 2019 per American was $17,600 for 
retired workers, and that works out to be about $18,000 for men and 
$14,000 for women--not enough for most to live on.
  Mr. Speaker, 178 million Americans are covered by Social Security 
today; 10,000, baby boomers a day become eligible for Social Security.
  Social Security helps lower and middle-income Americans the most. 
More than 90 percent of benefits go to beneficiaries earning less than 
$50,000. Let me repeat that again: more than 90 percent of all the 
benefits of Social Security go to people earning less than $50,000 a 
year.
  That is why the following individuals have supported the Social 
Security 2100 Act, including: Social Security Works, the National 
Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the AFL-CIO, the 
Alliance for Retired Americans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, 
VoteVets, the American Federation of Government Employees, the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Latinos for a Secure 
Retirement, the National Organization for Women, SAGE, the National 
Education Association, The Arc of the United States, International 
Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers representing the 
Administrative Law Judges, Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities 
Social Security Task Force, Justice in Aging, the Association of 
University Centers on Disabilities, Senior Citizens League, the 
National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives, 
the EPI Policy Center, the National Retiree Legislative Network, Public 
Citizen, CREDO Action, Progress America, Other 98, the Daily Kos, 
People's Action, the Diverse Elders Coalition, the National Employment 
Law Project, Freedom to Prosper, MoveOn, Union Veterans Council of the 
AFL-CIO, just to name a few, Madam Speaker.
  I want to start today by talking about having Secretary Mnuchin 
before the Ways and Means Committee this morning.
  I reminded Secretary Mnuchin and complimented the President for 
saying in his last two State of the Union messages how he was committed 
to protecting Social Security. While he is committed to protecting 
Social Security, his budgets have not reflected that, which was a point 
of concern we raised with Secretary Mnuchin especially since--to give 
President Trump credit here--that during the campaign of 2016 when 
faced with 16 other Republicans who tried to force him to say that 
Social Security is an entitlement, President Trump, to his credit, 
said: No, Social Security is an earned benefit.
  I asked Secretary Mnuchin if he believed that Social Security was an 
earned benefit, and he said: Yes, it was.
  I also asked then, if that is the case, and it is an earned benefit, 
it debunks a longstanding concern raised by the other side that Social 
Security is somehow an entitlement program when, in fact, every 
American citizen knows, because of FICA, exactly what Social Security 
is.
  FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contribution Act, but anyone 
can go to their pay stub and look at it. Federal Insurance 
Contribution--whose contribution?
  Your contribution; every American citizen's contribution. It is not a 
tax. The tax that is paid by an employer to your benefit is fully 
deductible. The employer gets to deduct it. The benefit for your 
contribution goes directly to the employee, and they get that in the 
way of pension guarantee, disability protection, spousal and dependent 
coverage, and a death benefit.

                              {time}  1430

  The wisdom of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is also prescient because 
they realized back in 1929, after the Great Depression, in this great 
capitalistic and entrepreneurial society that we live in, that 
sometimes, through no fault of your own, when something as disastrous 
as a stock market crash or an unanticipated virus takes place, that 
disaster can prevail, and all of a sudden, you would find yourself in a 
situation where you had not the means.
  Thus, Congress, because of President Roosevelt, adopted the Social 
Security Act and paid for it through the Federal insurance 
contribution. So this contribution, every citizen knows that it is 
their contribution that they make.

[[Page H1466]]

  I commended President Trump for having said that, debating his other 
Republican opponents. But to date, the administration has not produced 
a plan that will protect Social Security, that will, in fact, expand 
Social Security the way it needs to be.
  In fact, the last time Social Security was expanded, there was a 
Republican President, a Republican Senate, and a Democratic House. The 
Democratic Speaker was Tip O'Neill. He led that effort. The leader of 
the Social Security movement was Robert Dole. The Senate majority 
leader was Howard Baker. And the President was Ronald Reagan.
  They understood, bipartisanly, that this is the American people's 
number one insurance program, the number one antipoverty program.
  You know what? We don't even have to go back to 1929 to understand 
the impact and the need for Social Security. History and historians are 
replete with the stories of the great crash. We have to go back only as 
far as 2008 because, in 2008, this country experienced the Great 
Recession.
  Since that recession, many Americans saw their 401(k)'s become 
101(k)'s, and 90 percent of the American people have not recovered 
their wealth and assets that they lost in the recession of 2008. Let me 
repeat that, Madam Speaker: 90 percent of Americans have not recovered 
their wealth and assets from 2008.
  During that time, when many lost everything, and companies turned 
away from defined benefit contributions and were getting out of the 
pension business, during that same time period, Social Security never 
missed a payment. Social Security never missed a pension payment, never 
missed a disability payment, never missed a spousal or dependent 
coverage payment, because it is the full faith and credit of the United 
States Government and the Nation's number one insurance plan and the 
Nation's number one antipoverty plan.
  Most recently, our dear colleague   John Lewis reminded us--and in 
June 2019 he rolled out, along with   Danny Davis, Linda Sanchez, Terri 
Sewell, Gwen Moore,   Jimmy Gomez, and other members of the Committee 
on Ways and Means--the fact that Social Security is a civil rights 
issue as well, a civil rights issue that has long gone unaddressed.
  It has been more than 37 years since Social Security was last fixed, 
and that was under Tip O'Neill, Ronald Reagan, and Howard Baker. It has 
been more than 50 years since Social Security was enhanced. Do you 
think things have changed for people in 37 years and in 50 years?
  Every American listening to this understands that that is the case. 
They have faithfully paid into this earned benefit and have gotten, in 
return, a benefit, but one that needs to be changed and modified in a 
way that is sustainably solvent into the next century and enhanced in 
the following ways that people like   Danny Davis have advocated.
  Here are the four ways that we enhance Social Security.
  Number one, we make sure that no one can retire into poverty. In the 
wealthiest nation in the world today, fellow American citizens who have 
paid all their quarters into Social Security, who have worked all their 
lives, receive a Social Security check that is below the poverty level. 
Most of them happen to be women, and most of them happen to be women of 
color.
  It is the shame of this country that in the midst of the great 
prosperity and wealth and, frankly, in the midst of handing out a $2 
trillion tax cut of which 83 percent went to the Nation's wealthiest 1 
percent, that we could not find the will and the way to help out those 
who have worked all their lives and paid into the program.
  This is no handout. This is someone who, by the sweat of their brow 
and their work, earned a benefit that hasn't actuarially kept pace, 
because, in 1983, they didn't index it the way they should have. No one 
who has paid in their quarters should suffer for a mistake made by 
Congress.
  Congress needs to correct that so now the new floor for Social 
Security will become 125 percent of what the poverty level is so that 
no one who works their whole life and pays in their quarters can retire 
into poverty.
  The second thing we do is make sure that there is a 2 percent across-
the-board increase. Nobody gets wealthy on Social Security. On average, 
a male earns approximately $18,000 in Social Security payments and a 
female $14,000. Nobody is getting wealthy on Social Security. It is the 
subsistence amount of money necessitated to make ends meet. So, a 
modest 2 percent increase will be spent right back into the very 
communities that they live in.
  On average, every congressional district has 145,000 people who 
receive Social Security. In each one of our 435 districts, 145,000 
people will be spending money back in those communities.
  Recognize that this is an economic stimulus bill. In fact, most 
recently, Jason Furman, coming before the Committee on Ways and Means, 
talked about this as an economic stimulus, as has Larry Summers and 
other economists who have taken a look at the ways we need to stimulate 
our economy by making sure that those amongst us who need the money 
most and who spend that money directly back in the community on the 
necessities of life--like heating and cooling their homes, providing 
the fuel that allows them to operate their automobiles, making sure 
that they have food and nutrition and physical therapy, and paying for 
doctor visits and also prescriptions--this is what we are doing to 
expand this bill with a 2 percent increase and then also making sure 
that there is a COLA that reflects the actual costs that people incur.

  How so? A COLA, which the AARP calls CPIE, with ``E'' standing for 
elderly, but I would also say standing for the essential benefits that 
the elderly need. Again, heating and cooling your home, prescription 
drugs, doctor visits, physical therapy, the very food that you put on 
your table, these are essential for life. That is what should go into 
figuring out what your COLA is, and that is what this bill reflects.
  The bill also reflects the idea that a lot of people continue to work 
beyond retirement age. But most people don't realize that if you are 
single and making more than $24,000, your Social Security is taxed. If 
you are a married couple and making more than $32,000, your Social 
Security is taxed. Again, back in 1983, they didn't index this. We 
changed that. We indexed Social Security. Now, 12 million Americans 
will get a tax break because of that.
  Making sure that no one can retire into poverty, having a modest 2 
percent across-the-board increase, having a COLA that reflects your 
actual expenses, and providing a tax break is at the core of this bill.
  In the new and added improvements of the bill, including those led by 
  Danny Davis to make sure that grandmothers and grandparents, to make 
sure that students, to make sure that widows are getting extra money to 
raise the children that they are responsible for was also included in 
this legislation, as well as introducing an earned income tax credit so 
that nobody earning $50,000 and below will have to pay an increase in 
taxes and in contributions, to make sure that the money is going where 
it is needed the most, to help people at the lower end of the pay scale 
to get the kind of benefits that the Social Security 2100 Act provides.

                              {time}  1445

  And with that, Madam Speaker, I am going to yield to the gentleman 
from the great State of Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis), as I like to 
refer to him--as I have heard no better voice in Congress--the voice of 
God.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Well, thank you, sir. I want to thank 
you indeed. As a matter of fact, as I was listening, I was saying to 
myself, after a good sermon, all that you really say is ``Amen.'' And I 
want to say ``Amen'' to you.
  And I say that in all seriousness, because the number one advocate 
for an expanded Social Security in this House of Representatives is 
none other than Representative   John Larson. I thank you for your 
diligence, for the consistency.
  When you walk in my office, there is a photograph of Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt, and that photograph has been there ever since I have been 
here. I had that photograph before I came here, because the work and 
the leadership, the vision that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had, has been 
transformed and passed on to people like yourself and to you. I am so 
proud to be able to say that I serve with you in this House of 
Representatives, on the Ways and Means

[[Page H1467]]

Committee, and that you chair the Social Security Subcommittee and the 
Social Security effort.
  The only other thing that I really would need to say and would want 
to say, I have always been told that you can measure the effectiveness 
of a society, that you make an assessment by how well it treats its 
young, how well it treats its old, and how well it treats those who 
have difficulty caring for themselves.
  I couldn't help but think of my father, as I listened to you, who was 
92 years old when he died. But he had a good life. As a matter of fact, 
he spent the last 5 years living with me on the weekends whenever I 
came home.
  He always wanted to pay for things. You know, we would stop for 
dinner, and he would say to my wife: Vera, I am going to treat you for 
dinner.
  His Social Security check was $500-something a month, which obviously 
would not have been enough if he had to live alone and care for himself 
and all of that. But I would go ahead and let him pay. I would say: 
Okay. Well, if you want to pay for dinner, go right ahead--and he would 
pay.
  When I stopped to get gasoline, as the tank was being filled, he 
would say: Here, let me pay for it.
  He would reach and get his money. We were getting gas. At the time, 
gasoline was very high. It went up to $40, $50, $60, $70. He would say: 
I guess you better go ahead and pay for it. You don't have to worry.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. He is a smart man.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. But, again, we have got to expand it. 
We have got to keep it. We have got to make sure that it provides for 
the individuals it is designed to provide for.
  It is not a gift. It is not a giveaway. It is an entitlement that 
people work for. And so I am proud to join with you in saying that we 
have got to make Social Security everything that it ought to be.
  Where you lead, I will follow, and we will help make it happen. So, 
thank you very much. I am going to conclude, and this just about ends 
my day.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Well, first of all, thank you very much. I 
deeply appreciate your efforts, Mr. Davis.
  And I love the story about your father, because that just 
demonstrates the dignity and the worth of a lifetime of work. But, 
still, he wanted to pay, he wanted to continue to contribute, because 
he knew how important it was.
  And it wasn't any handout. He worked for it all of his life. He 
contributed into it.
  Now we are faced with a decision in Congress on our watch, not 
sometime down in the future, but now.
  For you up there listening in the audience, as we speak, this year, 
Social Security will start paying out more money than it is taking in. 
It hasn't been adjusted in 37 years.
  There is nothing that you can leave untouched that requires actuarial 
attention--and, specifically, the attention of Congress--that, left 
untouched, will continue to flourish. And yet Social Security has never 
missed a payment, not for disability, not for spousal or dependent 
coverage, and not for a pension. It is America's insurance plan. It is 
our number one antipoverty program as well.
  That is why I am so grateful that Danny and others have pointed this 
out as a civil rights issue, as well, because of the way, for so long, 
people of color, especially Black males, have been discriminated 
against.
  Also, when you look at women and you understand that, for women of 
color, they are receiving 56 cents for every dollar their White male 
counterparts were--80 cents for White women, 53 cents for Hispanic 
women--that is simply unfair.
  In this day and age, we can correct that, and we can do it simply by 
doing what Roosevelt asked us to do: Make a contribution.
  What does that contribution go towards? It goes towards a pension, a 
disability payment, dependent coverage, and a spousal benefit.
  That is a pretty good deal. You can't buy that anywhere in the 
private sector.
  I come from one of the insurance capitals of the world, where, when 
you went to insurance school, they taught you about the three legs on 
the stool; and the most important leg on that stool was Social 
Security, because that was the floor, that was the safety net which 
nothing could fall through.
  We don't ever want to see another crash like 1929. But, again, 
understand, since 2008, 90 percent of Americans are struggling because 
they haven't recovered their wealth and assets. Sixty-eight percent of 
all millennials, who will need Social Security more than baby boomers, 
have only Social Security to rely on. They have no pension or 401(k).
  While we should do everything to make that more possible, the 
plausible reality and what government can do is at hand: First and 
foremost, make Social Security solvent; and then, secondly, make sure 
it is solvent for more than 75 years and addresses baby boomers and 
millennials and future generations, and does so with modest benefits 
that end the inequality that exists but also provides basic economic 
sustenance so that our economies can thrive.

  Both Jason Furman and Larry Summers, and, I think, Secretary Mnuchin 
would even agree with this today. They were talking about, in the face 
of the coronavirus--which, by the way, is age-related and will impact 
the elderly and people in the age groups of 60 to 70 and 70 to 80 far 
more than it will impact any other generation, and it will do so in a 
way that they better have the wherewithal--they were talking about 
means to stimulate the economy.
  The number one way to stimulate the economy is to give those modest 
benefits to the very people--145,000, on average, in every 
congressional district--so those modest benefits are spent directly 
right back into the communities that they live in for the necessities 
of life that are needed to sustain their existence.
  Would you agree, Dan?
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. I agree wholeheartedly.
  As a matter of fact, if you really want to touch and move the 
economy, it is to make sure that those individuals at the very bottom 
are able to contribute.
  You see, I always say that money to a community is like blood to the 
body. No matter how sophisticated we are in terms of medicine and 
health, if all the blood leaves your body, in all likelihood, you are 
going to die.
  In communities that are considered low income, senior citizen 
villages, places where people live in senior housing, unless those 
individuals have resources to plow back into the environment, then 
those will always be low income, no money, no resources, no business, 
no opportunities, no hope.
  So, if we really want to make America be the America that we dream 
about, talk about, hope about, but has never been, then Social Security 
is the way to do it. Every person who works, who reaches a certain age, 
you know, retirement can be a good thing.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Exactly.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. You have got enough resources to 
retire without wondering if you are going to have to cut your pills in 
half or not pay the light bill or pay the rent or have enough money to 
purchase the food that you want, where you are not scraping and looking 
for coupons and looking for special sales and special opportunities.
  That is what happens to many of our senior citizens. They have to 
look and see if there is an item on sale so that they will be able to 
acquire it. So, if we make sure that there are sufficient resources for 
people to live on, then, at my church, they would say that you are 
doing the work of the Master.
  So there is no better way to do it, no more effective, no more 
efficient way. I am just pleased that we have this opportunity to do 
this, and do it now.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. We do, and it is on our watch.
  I can't emphasize this enough. For every Member of Congress and every 
person out there in America who is listening to C-SPAN right now or to 
this program: It is on our watch. It is our responsibility. We cannot 
continue to kick the can down the road.
  Doing nothing means a 20 percent cut to people's benefits.
  Let me repeat that again. Doing nothing means a 20 percent cut to 
people's benefits.
  Now, there are some who are fine with that, but most, on both sides 
of the aisle, are not in favor of that.

[[Page H1468]]

  Here is what the polling data shows. It shows that Social Security is 
bipartisan. Seventy-seven percent of Americans--84 percent of 
Democrats, 69 percent of Republicans, 76 percent of Independents--said 
that they would be willing to pay a little more to make sure that their 
benefits are not cut and that they are protected and expanded.
  Also, 91 percent of workers and 94 percent of retirees would feel 
betrayed--that is 91 percent of workers, 94 percent of retirees would 
feel betrayed--if the money they paid into Social Security was not 
available to them.
  A Gallup poll found, this most recent one, that Social Security 
ranked fourth amongst the things that keep people up at night and 
worried with respect to their security, fourth in importance after 
education, healthcare, and their financial security--and they often 
lump financial security and Social Security together.

                              {time}  1500

  I would just like to close.
  I mentioned Jason Furman, who was the former Obama National Economic 
Council Adviser, and Larry Summers, the former Clinton Treasury 
Secretary--both were serving up at Harvard--who have written 
extensively about the importance of making sure, as an economic 
stimulus and out of necessity, that we make the improvements that 
should have been made 37 years ago but desperately need to be taken up 
today, not only for current generations and baby boomers retiring, but 
for millennials and future generations.
  Alicia Munnell, the current Director for the Center for Retirement 
Research, former member of the President's Council of Economic 
Advisors, former Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, and former 
senior vice president at the Federal Reserve in Boston, said we have to 
protect Social Security: Policymakers should fix Social Security by 
raising, incrementally, over time, the money necessitated to do it. It 
doesn't come from heaven.
  We need to maintain benefits. People don't have anything else other 
than their 401(k)s, and a specific portion of the population doesn't 
even have those. Social Security is the forced savings plan that people 
have paid into and have counted on, and, as I have said before, it has 
never missed a payment.
  Monique Morrissey, economist from the Economic Policy Institute: 
``Expanding Social Security . . . ensures steady contributions; it 
keeps costs low and prevents leakage; and it pools longevity risk. 
Moreover, Social Security's pay-as-you-go financing . . . provides an 
internal rate of return tied to economic growth . . . but without the 
gyrations.''
  Dean Baker, senior economist for the Center for Economic and Policy 
Research, if Social Security 2100 becomes law, ``it would both improve 
the program's benefit structure and its financial picture. . . . After 
adjusting for prices, wages have risen 1.5 percent annually over the 
last 5 years.'' Social Security 2100 would only be a small impact on 
the pay increase of a new FICA tax.
  This was in Economy for All on November 12, 2019. The Congressional 
Budget Office also reports this.
  This will be the only bill that we will be able to vote on this year 
that both reduces the national debt by $525 billion and expands and 
improves Social Security.
  Let me repeat that again.
  CBO has said that Social Security 2100 is both PAYGO compliant and, 
because the program is fully paid for, reduces the national debt by 
$525 billion over time and enhances the existence of Social Security, 
making it solvent for future generations beyond 75 years.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. 
Davis), if he has a final word.
  Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, the final word is only 
to make sure that Social Security is in your plans, and be ready to 
accept it when we get it.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of 
my time.

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