Enhancing Social Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be here.

This morning, I rise to talk about social security, the Nation's number one antipoverty program for the elderly and the number one antipoverty program for children.

Mr. Speaker, I know it comes as no surprise to you that Social Security has not been enhanced since 1971. Richard Nixon was President of the United States then. Congress has done nothing to improve the situation of so many people who desperately need it.

There are more than 70 million Social Security recipients in the United States, and 10,000 baby boomers a day become eligible for Social Security. Yet, Elon Musk is setting about to dismantle the Social Security Administration by cutting regional offices. Whether it is Illinois or Connecticut, we need these regional offices.

He is cutting off the phone services, getting rid of the inspectors general, doing so to the program that is most effectively administrated in the Federal Government. No other agency, public or private, provides insurance for more than 70 million people with administrative costs that are under 1 percent. It delivers and has never missed a payment, not a pension payment, not a disability payment, not a spousal payment, not a dependent child payment.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, in your district you have approximately 180,000 Social Security recipients, 130,000-plus retirees, 21,000-plus disabled, 11,800 widows, 4,500 spouses, and over 10,000 children who rely on Social Security. Mr. Musk is out to dismantle and privatize this.

Some of the American people may have been born at night but not last night, with respect to what Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump are up to: On one hand, they say they will not cut social security. In the next breath, Larry Kudlow or CNN say, no, we have to privatize these systems because that is where we are going to find the $2 trillion that Mr. Trump has asked us to find.

What a coincidence that in the Social Security trust fund, the trust fund that more than 180,000 people in your district have paid into, is $2.7 trillion, and has never missed a payment but hasn't been expanded since 1971.

Do you think those 10,000 baby boomers a day are going to call your office, my office, every Member of Congress' office? You bet they are, and they should because Congress has done nothing. In the face of this, Mr. Trump is now trying to privatize Social Security, first, by gutting it from the inside and not providing the services to the public that it desperately needs and then indicating this system doesn't work. So I guess we are going to have to grab that $2.7 trillion and privatize that.

That will be a great benefit for the private sector. That would not help out the day-to-day workforce that relies on it and needs it and is depending on you, Mr. Speaker, and me and all the Members of this body. You owe it to your constituents to look them in the eye and tell them what your plan is. We have a plan to expand Social Security.

You imagine, there are 5 million Americans, mostly women, who get below-poverty-level checks from the wealthiest States in the Nation, having paid in with the guarantee and trust from their government that they would have a pension they could retire on. Instead, they get below-poverty-level checks because of Congress' inaction. Rise up America. Contact your Members of Congress.

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