Appropriations question?  Visit the Committee website.

E-mail
Senator Byrd

Leadership.      Character.      Commitment.

The News organizations seeking more information should call Senator Byrd's Communications Office at 202-224-3904.  To hear portions of many of Senator Byrd's speeches, visit the Radio page.  Also, high-resolution photographs are available from many events.

Remarks by Senator Byrd

Delivered on April 28, 2005

Protecting Social Security for Generations to Come

Senator Byrd delivered the following remarks as the Senate Finance Committee continued its work on proposals to reform Social Security and as the President continued to call on Congress to pass his yet-to-be-defined plan for the retirement security net.

From the Book of Matthew, Chapter 7, Verses 25-27, of the King James Bible, I read:

"And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

Seventy years ago, the Social Security program was founded upon a rock. It was designed to shelter workers in their old-age, and to withstand the storms that can wipe away their savings. For seventy years, the Social Security program has stood as a protector of workers and families. It is their safeguard against economic peril.

Social Security provides essential support for 405,000 West Virginians. In counties across the state, men and women, workers and retirees, their spouses and children rely on their monthly Social Security check.

And so it is with great trepidation that they listen to apocalyptic tales about Social Security’s future. It is difficult to understand, and perhaps impossible to comprehend, how workers could spend their lifetime contributing to the Social Security program only to find that the benefits promised to them may not be available when they retire. Demographic projections show that the next generation of workers cannot support the retirement and disability benefits promised to this generation of workers. The Social Security trustees warn that this demographic storm will erode the rock upon which the retirement security of workers’ has been built. Soon the rains will descend, the floods will come, and the winds will blow. Our challenge to keep that house from falling is great.

It is within this context that President Bush has proposed changing the scope of the Social Security program, adding personal accounts to wean workers from the traditional program. He offers the opportunity for higher returns in the financial markets in exchange for workers relinquishing a portion of the benefits guaranteed under the current system. Needless to say, the outcry to such a proposal has been deafening. In the state of West Virginia, thousands and thousands of constituents are contacting my office -- phone calls, e-mails, letters -- in opposition to the President’s Social Security plan.

They fear that personal accounts are a scheme to take away their Social Security benefits. They fear it is an effort to crack open Social Security and break it apart, piece by piece. I too fear such efforts, and feeding that fear is the secrecy that permeates the Administration’s plans. The X factors are multifarious, impacting every worker and employer who pays into the Social Security program, and every future retiree or disabled worker who expects, one day, to receive benefits.

My constituents are right to be leery of schemes to privatize Social Security, particularly when efforts to learn more about so-called Social Security reforms are being stonewalled. If we knew the answers, if we knew for certain that the retirement security of our constituents would be protected, that would be one thing. But this proposal for personal accounts feels a lot like the kind of telephone scams you hear of when folks are told they have won a prize and then asked for their bank account number. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Hold on here. We are all enticed by the idea of ensuring the solvency of Social Security, but what are workers being asked to give up? No one in the Administration is willing to tell.

Here me when I say that I will oppose this plan, as well as any plan, where the costs are undefined and the benefit cuts so uncertain.

Four months of high publicity tours and photo-ops across America by President Bush and members of his Cabinet, including stops in West Virginia, have yielded little new information about how the President’s plan will affect workers’ benefits. What level of benefit cuts is the President advocating, and how much of their guaranteed benefits is the President asking workers to relinquish? On this subject, the White House has been evasive and equivocating.

And what of the volatility of the financial markets? Recent news reports serve as a vivid reminder that the stock market has severe ups and downs. What happens when it comes time to retire, and a worker discovers that he or she does not have enough saved to ensure a decent, respectable living? What guarantee would the Administration support to ensure a minimum benefit from each individual account? The White House will not respond to this question.

And what of the cost of the President’s Social Security plan? The White House budget office says $754 billion, but the Vice President says trillions of dollars. How can this Administration reconcile mounting debt, and its own warnings about the need to limit the further growth of deficits, with a plan that requires borrowing trillions of dollars more? Again, the White House has no response to that question.

This week, the Senate Finance Committee began hearings on the President’s plan. I hope these hearings will yield more information. Our senior citizens need answers to these questions.

I sent a letter to the President earlier this year urging him to send a detailed legislative proposal to the Congress. I have asked questions of the Treasury Secretary at Appropriations Committee hearings. The Congress and the people have been patient in waiting for answers, but still no answers come forth.

Honesty and candor are now required. We cannot legislate on rumors and guesses. The ducking and dodgings on the part of the Administration serves only to fuel speculation that it is hiding something from the American public, or worse, seeking to cut benefits surreptitiously.

Fortunately, any legislation submitted by the President to change Social Security will require sixty votes to pass the Senate. The danger of the nuclear option becomes crystal clear as we contemplate the momentous debate on social security which looms ahead. Only the Senate has the ability to insist on its right to unlimited debate. No social security legislation will fly through the Senate without thorough scrutiny. Senators can and will insist on the time they need to probe the details of the President’s plan and to extract answers to their questions. The Senate will have the opportunity to amend, to debate, and then, if it desires, to amend and debate some more. The threat of a filibuster means that no legislation will be enacted into law without bipartisan support in the Senate, which means that no benefits will be cut, no taxes will be increased, and no radical changes codified, without adequate debate. The Senate will require compromise if and when Social Security reforms are ever enacted, fulfilling its role exactly as the Founding Fathers envisioned.

That is why we have a Senate, with its rules for unlimited debate – to forge compromise, and to ensure moderation in the laws enacted. To those who advocate chipping away at that role, limiting a Senator’s right to debate in regard to judicial nominees, hear me when I say the crucial need for keeping those rules strong in order to encourage compromise and moderation is right before us as the Senate prepares to debate changes to Social Security.

We ought to engage in a genuine effort to end the rumors, and help the public understand exactly what is being asked of them with regard to their Social Security benefits.

I urge this Administration to lay its case before the American public. The last thing we need at this late point, with the Social Security storm looming on the horizon, is to find that another house has been built upon sand.

###