Social Security A Sacred Trust

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I rise this afternoon to use this hour to discuss ``Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust,'' or, as Martin Luther King would remind us, the fierce urgency of now and Congress' need to act on Social Security.

Let me start with the fact that Social Security is the Nation's number one insurance program, the number one insurance program that some on the other side call an entitlement. There is nothing further from the truth, and this is easily verifiable. All you have to do is look at your pay stub. It says FICA. FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contributions Act. Whose contribution? Every citizen in the United States who pays into the program.

It is an earned benefit, and one that has never missed a payment. It is a guarantee, and that is why it is so vitally important to every American citizen.

Congress has been negligent. It has been 50 years since there has been an enhancement to the program. It has been more than 38 years since there was an attempt at solvency. Yet, 38 years ago, Congress enacted a cut that will take place this January.

The time to act is now. No more procrastination. For all of our C- SPAN listeners, make sure that you contact your Member of Congress in both Houses.

We are pleased that 200-plus people are original cosponsors of the bill. You will hear from some of them today.

We have taken the liberty of pointing out to every Member of Congress how many people in their district receive Social Security benefits and what that brings into their district on a monthly basis. I assure you, there is no more greater economic development plan for Members' districts than what happens on a monthly basis to those who need it most.

Let me reiterate again: Social Security is the number one antipoverty program for the elderly and the number one antipoverty program for children as well.

I have here, Madam Speaker, something we have done for every Member of Congress. In this case, we are illustrating our great leader, Representative Jim Clyburn, who is a proud cosponsor of this bill.

In his district, in South Carolina's Sixth, there are 149,433 Social Security recipients who receive $189 million in monthly benefits. That is monthly benefits. There are 1.2 million Social Security recipients in South Carolina who receive $1.7 billion in monthly benefits as well.

For about half of senior beneficiaries, Social Security provides a majority of their income. Now imagine that, for half the seniors in the country, Social Security provides a majority of their benefits, yet there hasn't been an enhancement or an increase in over 50 years in a COLA. That doesn't even come remotely close to what people need.

For more than a quarter of our seniors, it provides 90 percent or more of their income, 90 percent for a quarter of our seniors. At a time when the wealth disparity is the greatest it has ever been in our country, the wealthiest nation in the world, there are 5 million of our fellow Americans, mostly women, who receive a below-poverty level check from their government.

Why? Because Congress hasn't acted. This isn't something the President can do through executive order, nor is this something that the Supreme Court is going to adjudicate. This is the responsibility of the United States Congress.

I am proud that we had a hearing the other day in the Ways and Means Committee that we are going to bring to a markup and ultimately to the floor of this House: Social Security 2100. I am proud of the fact that we have a President of the United States who refers to Social Security as a sacred trust, a sacred trust between the government and their people. And Social Security has never failed. It has never missed a payment.

It used to be--and Mr. Cartwright from Pennsylvania knows this--that we could go back to 1935 to explain why Roosevelt back then, in the midst of the Great Depression, put forward Social Security because of the devastation that had taken place in 1929 during the great crash.

But Members on this floor, Members in this Congress understand all too well that we only have to go back to 2008, 2009 during the Great Recession when people saw their 401(k) become a 101(k) where people lost their benefits. And that coupled with the great pandemic, this roller coaster of a pandemic that we are living through now has only further underscored the need for us to enhance the Nation's number one insurance program.

And during that same time, during that recession that they witnessed their funds depleted and devastated or lost altogether or during layoffs that have occurred through no fault of their own, Social Security has never missed a payment. Not a pension payment, not a spousal payment, not dependent coverage, nor disability.

Madam Speaker, it might surprise some of our viewers and listeners that more veterans depend on Social Security disability than they do on the VA. And it is because Social Security provides these benefits and especially for our veterans. People in this Chamber and in the Senate take great pride in talking about our veterans on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and rightfully so, and saluting them and saying what a grateful Nation we are.

Well, if we are truly a grateful Nation, then it is time we end the more than 50 years of neglect and make sure that our veterans are able to get the benefits that they richly deserve without 5-month delays, in making sure that they have disability that they know they can rely on, that works for the times that we are living through currently.

Children continue to rely on Social Security, and it is the number one antipoverty program for children. And you know what, 10,000 baby boomers a day become eligible for Social Security, and millennials will need the benefit more than baby boomers. Millennials have been put in the position where they have less money to be able to afford private pensions, where they have been burdened with college loan debt, where they are unable to get the kind of mortgages their parents enjoyed, and, in fact, have incomes that are below that level, and so, Social Security becomes their salvation. But it can't be their salvation if they are locked at the bottom, and we are not making the benefit increases that will provide that opportunity for all generations to enjoy.

Madam Speaker, we are pleased also that Social Security 2100 will not only lift benefits across the board, but it will make sure that no one can work all their lives, pay into a system and retire into poverty. More than 5 million Americans get a below-poverty-level check from the government after having paid in all their lives. That is unfair. That is unjust. That is flat out wrong. We are a body that can pass out trillions of dollars of tax cuts to the Nation's wealthiest 1 percent and yet we can't take care of people who have paid into the system because Congress has not fulfilled its obligation and responsibility.

Now is the time to act, and under Democratic leadership, that will take place. People say to me often, ``Well, what is different?''

What is different is: we have a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and most importantly, a President who believes that this is a sacred trust. A President, as Matt Cartwright also knows, who has said we are going to end WEP and GPO.

And for you listeners, for you viewers, that means for all you schoolteachers, for you firefighters, for you police officers, for you municipal employees that were penalized under a system who have worked hard and played by the rules, the President has called for its repeal, and that means benefits flowing to people who rightfully deserve them and should rightfully get them.

I would add that that has had bipartisan support in the Congress, and we do have bipartisan support for this bill across the Nation. No one yet on the other side has signed up, but yet, all across the Nation in large numbers more than 80 percent of Democrats, more than 68 percent of Republicans and more than 74 percent of Independents all favor increasing benefits because they know of the security and the promise and the necessity of Social Security.

I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Cartwright) who is an original cosponsor, Madam Speaker, of this Social Security 2100, as are you, who understands how critical this is to Pennsylvanians and everyone across the Nation.

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. During that time, our current Speaker led the fight when George Bush said he was going to use his political capital that they had just gained and were in control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, they were going to privatize Social Security. And it was Nancy Pelosi and people like Marcy Kaptur that led the charge in the fight that prevented the privatization of Social Security.

To your point, had that gone into effect, people's total savings and everything that is a guarantee under Social Security would have been lost in 2008.

We are beyond 2008 now, but we are still dealing with all of those things that people can't necessarily prepare for, whether it is a pandemic or whether it is the Great Recession or whether it is the vicissitudes of the stock market, as Roosevelt would have said. These are the things that people who work hard and play by the rules are subject to, and that is why this is a sacred trust. Because in the United States we will not let that happen to our citizens because nobody deserves to work all their lives and retire into poverty.

I thank the gentleman for his leadership in this area.

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for joining us this afternoon.

Madam Speaker, I would point out a couple of things, something the gentleman knows--and we have been joined by the gentlewoman from Illinois, who will address us shortly--but the number of groups that are endorsing Social Security 2100:

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Social Security Works, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, Latinos for Secure Retirement, the National Education Association, AFGE, the American Federation of Teachers, The Arc of the United States, National Retiree Legislative Network, the Gray Panthers, American Family Voices, The Senior Citizens League. And the list goes on and on and on, because everybody understands the importance and significance of this.

Madam Speaker, I recognize the gentlewoman from Illinois, who has worked tirelessly on behalf of seniors across this country, and has headed a task force for more than a decade now that was instrumental in providing us with all the detailed information with the over 17 proposals that are included in Social Security 2100, a sacred trust.

Madam Speaker, we make this point often, and I want to make it here tonight, because you are well-aware of this as well. That in legislative parlance, the bill is called H.R. 5723. But what I want our viewers, our listeners, and most importantly, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to understand, this is about your parents. This is about your brothers and sisters, your aunts and uncles. This is about your next-door neighbor, your coworker, the people that you worship with.

This is not legislative parlance, this is the reality that they are living; and the disparity that exists today, the gap that exists, can be closed if Congress does a job that it has neglected for more than 50 years in terms of enhancing a program that is a necessity for your parents, for your brothers and sisters, for your aunts and uncles. All you have to do is ask them. It confounds me that anyone can look their constituents in the eye and say that we are doing enough for you, or that you are okay.

We all know, and I have heard Jan say this many times--I know my mother said it--she says, Oh, I just care that my children are okay, and I just don't want to be a burden. Of course people feel that way. It is their humility and their kind of generation and people that we know. Nobody wants to be a burden. But I assured my mother she was no burden. She was an inspiration. And for us to stand by in the midst of this, the wealthiest Nation in the world, and not do our responsibility as a Congress and vote.

The President can't do it by executive order, nor will the Supreme Court adjudicate it. It is only Congress. And thanks to the efforts of Jan Schakowsky, we are getting there.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. No.

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Correct.

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, this has been bipartisan. Chairman Neal, a Social Security recipient himself lost his father, lost his mother, his grandmother was then raising him, and then he lost his grandmother. Tom Reed, the ranking member on the Social Security Subcommittee, and Tom Rice, they both lost parents and were raised on Social Security as well.

Mr. Davis has put a bill in and has sponsored a bill for a number of years to eliminate the windfall elimination provision.

Finally, President Biden said we are going to repeal this in its entirety. It shows that there is an ability, a bridge to come together in so many of these things, including caregiver opportunities, that are bipartisanly-sponsored within this bill and included as part of the bill.

We have yet to have anyone endorse and support the bill, but that is a matter, I think, of voting and getting beyond what happens in this Chamber and in discussions between here and the Senate is that there is an awful lot of talk about helping veterans, but nobody actually votes one way or the other. There is an awful lot of talk about understanding what we have to do, but then nobody votes.

The time for reckoning, this is a point President Biden makes all the time, and I know, Madam Speaker, you understand this as well. Our very democracy and our Republic is at stake here because government, in an entrepreneurial capitalistic system like ours, where there has to be, by the nature of the system, risk that is taken. Well, that is important and good, but by the same token, Roosevelt and subsequent Presidents, including Eisenhower, including Nixon, and including Reagan, recognized this. We need that safety net there for people who work hard and play by the rules.

President Biden has said, yes, this is a sacred trust. Martin Luther King came to Washington, D.C. in 1963 during the famous march, and gave us the phrase, ``the fierce urgency of now.'' He was talking at the time about segregation and about the need for voting rights.

But the fierce urgency of now applies to all of our citizens that have been addressed in the remarks, who need this and who are suffering and receiving below poverty level payments from their own government after they have paid in. This is at a time when we gave the Nation's wealthiest 1 percent an 83 percent tax cut. God bless them.

It hasn't trickled down to everybody else. That is why we have the system that we do to take care of. It is the government's responsibility. And if a democracy is going to work, if we are not listening to what, as all the polls say, and we have accompanied more than six different polls talking about where the America people are, this is not partisan. This is totally bipartisan in terms of people's understanding of what their needs, their belief in a system they know that has never failed for them.

Dr. Martin Luther King said: Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. Now is the time to make good on the promise of the Federal Government. That is what Joe Biden has said and what he so eloquently has called a sacred trust. Now is the time for us.

This is beyond urgent, though it is the fierce urgency of now. It is shameful that this body, the world looks in on this great Nation, this great democracy that we have, it looks how we treat our people; how we treat our veterans; how we treat our children. The statistics that you rallied off about what is going on in this country and how they are depending on it, and then realizing that Congress hasn't done a thing in 50 years?

This is not anything that can be done--and I repeat this again--by executive order or by adjudication from the Supreme Court. This is the responsibility of every man and woman in this Chamber, of 535 of us overall, but it is our responsibility and the time to vote is long overdue.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois.

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, we can do this. I think Martin Luther King coined a phrase as well, and I am paraphrasing here: This is not the time for the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. This is not the time in the face of so much inequality and inequity. That is when problems happen in society, when the people see that their government has not lived up to its responsibility.

As noted, they pay into the system weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Our good colleague and friend, John Lewis, said: This is not only an important issue in terms of our people, this is a civil rights issue. He said and believed that with every fiber in his being because what he saw is the people that were discriminated against were the low wage earners.

Unfortunately, as you know and have spoken eloquently on, most of them are women, and specifically, women of color. So whether you had a job as a waitress or a seamstress or whether you were one of those caregivers that everybody relies on, or whether you had to go home to provide care for your family and you didn't pay into a system, or your wage level, long before pay equity, was far lower than your male counterpart, this is not a reason you should live out your remaining days in poverty. This happens for 5 million Americans.

In a blink of an eye we can do a tax cut. In a blink of an eye we can pass a defense bill. I support both. But I fervently support the fact that we have to take care of our citizens. It is this body's responsibility, Congress' responsibility. We cannot walk away.

Every citizen in this country ought to make sure that they are holding their congressional delegations responsible for doing their job. This is nothing that should be kicked down the road again or put off to some gradual dealing with the subject matter, or yet, another study that we are going to try to look into this on.

We don't need to study this. We know what the issue is here. We have looked in the mirror, and the problem is the United States Congress, it is the body that votes and changes the policy and the direction.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for joining us. General Leave
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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, I want to thank as well President Biden for having the temerity to not only on the campaign trail, but to speak directly to the American people and let them, and ensure them, that we understand that this is a sacred trust, a bond that will not be broken. Not on our watch. That we will fulfill that promise and make sure that they are receiving the kind of benefits that they have paid into a system for and are, yes, entitled to receive because there is no greater Nation in the world than the United States of America.

When this body sets its mind to it, as witnessed how bipartisan the public feels about this on the outside and a number of the great inclusions that both Democrats and Republicans feel about, now is the time for us to act on behalf of the citizens we are sworn to serve.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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