Posted on 03/18/2006 3:04:56 PM PST by eeevil conservative
53 Senators vote to raid the Social Security trust fund
Yesterday, Senators Jim DeMint and Mike Crapo introduced an amendment to prevent the current Social Security Surplus from continuing to be spent. 53 Senators voted against it.
After the vote, DeMint issued the following statement:
Details about the amendment via a DeMint press release are in the extended section.Sadly, fifty-three senators turned their backs on Americas seniors, Senator DeMint said. There is simply no way to save Social Security if we dont have the courage stop using the surplus as a secret slush fund. Im thankful there were forty-six senators who stood with Americas seniors to end the raid. We will not be deterred by cynics who offer no solutions.
Those who voted against this amendment voted to raid Social Security, said Senator DeMint. Now, every senator will be on record whether they oppose or support the raid. This said absolutely nothing about personal accounts, it was about whether you believe Social Security should be saved or allowed to wither on the vine.
UPDATE: Pasted below are the 53 Senators who voted to raid the fund -- Republicans who should no better are in bold. Click here to see the whole breakdown.
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Burns (R-MT) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Carper (D-DE) Chafee (R-RI) Clinton (D-NY) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Dayton (D-MN) Dodd (D-CT) Domenici (R-NM) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Jeffords (I-VT) Johnson (D-SD) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (D-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) Menendez (D-NJ) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Obama (D-IL) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sarbanes (D-MD) Schumer (D-NY) Smith (R-OR) Snowe (R-ME) Stabenow (D-MI) Talent (R-MO) Wyden (D-OR)
The current Social Security system allows Congress to spend the Social Security surplus on other government programs. Including interest, Congress has raided $1.7 trillion from Social Security since 1985. The surplus now only consists of IOUs stacked in a vault in West Virginia that can only be paid back by raising taxes or cutting spending.
The DeMint-Crapo Amendment to Stop the Raid on Social Security would have allowed the Senate to pass legislation with the following requirements:
· Social Security surpluses must be used to help pay for future benefits
· That it make no changes to the benefits of those Americans born before January 1, 1950
· That it provide a voluntary option for younger Americans to obtain legally binding ownership of a portion of their benefits.
As a Chicken Farmer I'm well atuned to both Rats and June Bugs...the later of which I wish would hurry up and git here already; enough of Winter, LOL!
As always, over-taxed and under-represented in Wisconsin. :(
I do not really care. I am young enough social security will have long collapsed by the time I retire."
Ah, but I'm sure the politicians will find something to steal that will affect you.
Just keep letting them know that if it's not about you, it's not your problem.
I give up....I obviously don't have the skills or sources that Cboldt has...he always has just the right link to read this stuff...
whaaaaaaa is right. sigh
Not ONE single dimocRAT voted against raiding SS. Not One!
"What I really wanted to say was: "Listen, you maroon (mc6809e), that interest is paid by future taxes." But I was trying to be polite."
More specifically, The PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST will have to be paid back by the 53 percent of americans that actually pay federal income tax. The bottom 47 percent which pay ZERO won't be affected.
Ain't it a great country?!
I'm shocked, SHOCKED that Russ el-Slimeroad (Moonbat-Al Qaeda) and Nobody's Senator can't stop spending.
"I do not really care. I am young enough social security will have long collapsed by the time I retire."
That was always my attitude also as the years grew. I'm 59 now and still expect SS to go south. Luckily, I worked for a really good company for 30 years and don't need the SS money anyway. Don't change your thinking. If SS gives you $$, consider it a gift.
How can eeevil go to sleep...when you keep waking her up every few seconds with the same darn post????
Did you have a severe case of the hiccups?
Yea was a good vote, 53 senators voted nea to raid the cookie jar.
I found out after I read more. I definitely screwed up on this one!!!
In a way. The SS trust fund buys treasury bonds. IOW, it loans the money to the US Government. Congress, in turn, spends that loan to buy votes and pamper worthless Americans.
Here is where I'm hazy and maybe some Freeper can help out: The accounting for the loan of money of one government entity to another is ignored. The GAO doesn't consider the money borrowed from SS as an on-the-books debt.
Say WA? Evergreen State ping
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
I got your meaning about post # 5.
The discussion is brief, and is way down the "page." Search for the amendment number, 3087.
Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, the amendment I have sent to the desk adds a reserve fund to the budget resolution for Social Security that would allow Congress to begin saving Social Security surpluses for future Social Security recipients.One can also get there via S.Amdt.3087.If the Finance Committee does not report back, then nothing happens. The amendment does nothing to change Social Security--no privatization, no stock market investment, and it does not add to the deficit.
The amendment only creates a budget mechanism to allow Congress to consider ways to begin saving the Social Security surplus.
I suspect most Members of this body, Republican and Democrat, are on record on the Senate floor or in a campaign saying that it is wrong to spend the Social Security surplus on other Government programs.
While we don't yet agree on how to fix Social Security, every Member and I believe every American knows that it is wrong to continue to spend Social Security taxes on other Government programs.
This amendment would open the door to consider ways to stop spending Social Security money.
I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I yield the time on this side to the Senator from Montana.
Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President my colleagues are not being fooled. This is privatization of Social Security. Turn to page 29, paragraph 3. It so provides.
We have already gone down the road on privatization of Social Security.
The so-called surplus that the Senator referred to is just to privatize Social Security.
The American public said no to privatizing Social Security. The President has realized that it is a bad idea. The Congress should realize it. It is a bad idea. The AARP sure knows it is a bad idea. I have a letter from the AARP. Let me read from it. They say:
AARP strongly opposes this attempt to resurrect a proposal that the American public has soundly rejected.
This is privatization of Social Security, pure and simple. The Senate should reject it as the American people have rejected it.
I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: [snippage] ...
Note on THIS amendment, the language changed "ever so slightly" just before the vote was taken. The word "only" was removed from point "(1)".
Before ...
SA 3087. Mr. DEMINT (for himself and Mr. CRAPO) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the concurrent resolution S. Con. Res. 83, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2007 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2006 and 2008 through 2011; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:After ...At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. RESERVE FUND FOR SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM.
If the Committee on Finance of the Senate reports a bill or joint resolution, or an amendment is offered thereto, or a conference report is submitted thereon, that provides changes to the Federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Benefits Program established under title II of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.), by--
(1) requiring that the Federal Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund are used only to finance expenditures to provide retirement income of future beneficiaries of such program;
(2) ensuring that there is no change to current law scheduled benefits for individuals born before January 1, 1950;
(3) providing the option to voluntarily obtain legally binding ownership of at least some portion of each participant's benefits; and
(4) ensuring that the funds made available to finance such legislation do not exceed the amounts of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration's intermediate actuarial estimates of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, as published in the most recent report of the Board of Trustees of such Trust Funds,
the chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may make the appropriate adjustments in allocations and aggregates to the extent that such legislation would not increase the deficit for fiscal year 2007 and for the period of fiscal years 2007 through 2011.
The amendment is as follows:At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. RESERVE FUND FOR SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM.
If the Committee on Finance of the Senate reports a bill or joint resolution, or an amendment is offered thereto, or a conference report is submitted thereon, that provides changes to the Federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Benefits Program established under title II of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.), by--
(1) requiring that the Federal Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund are used to finance expenditures to provide retirement and disability income of future beneficiaries of such program;
(2) ensuring that there is no change to current law scheduled benefits for individuals born before January 1, 1950;
(3) providing the option to voluntarily obtain legally binding ownership of at least some portion of each participant's benefits; and
(4) ensuring that the funds made available to finance such legislation do not exceed the amounts of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration's intermediate actuarial estimates of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, as published in the most recent report of the Board of Trustees of such Trust Funds,
the chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may make the appropriate adjustments in allocations and aggregates to the extent that such legislation would not increase the deficit for fiscal year 2007 and for the period of fiscal years 2007 through 2011.
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