Washington, DC - Today, Congressman Gene Green (D-Houston) gave the following remarks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in response to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's warning that future cuts in Social Security and Medicare spending will be necessary:

 

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my deep disappointment Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan’s remarks about Social Security.

 

For any of you who missed this shocking pronouncement, Mr. Greenspan suggested that Social Security benefits be cut for future retirees, that the retirement age should be raised, and that the Cost of Living Adjustment – which was a whopping 2.2 percent this year – should be modified so that it’s not as ‘generous’.

 

In 2001, President Bush inherited a strong economy and a $5.6 trillion 10-year surplus. But that has been squandered and turned it into a projected deficit of $2.9 trillion.

 

We got into this mess not because of the war on terror, that I think all of us support, but because of the administration’s fiscally irresponsible tax cuts.

 

But Mr. Greenspan – who advocates permanent extension of these reckless tax cuts -- suggests that we fix this economic disaster by raiding Social Security, not just borrowing from it like we do now.

 

Surely this administration does not want to pay for tax cuts on the backs of the elderly.

 

It’s pretty easy for Mr. Greenspan to sit in his ivory tower and modify Social Security to meet his economic world view, but for those people living in the real world, for folks who are hanging sheet metal, who are working on our docks and ports, working on the assembly line all day, Social Security is a critical safety net that cannot be taken away or reduced. 

 

These aren’t folks who have the luxury of playing the stock market, as the Administration would propose, or work a few more years, as Mr. Greenspan suggests.

 

I hope and pray we reject his proposal and do not privatize Social Security.”