As we consider this year’s budget, we have a choice - to preserve Social Security and protect our nation’s elderly from poverty, or divert funds for this program to less critical priorities.  To meet the needs of our country’s rapidly growing senior population, I choose to prioritize Social Security and Medicare and will fight for a budget that reflects that choice.   The Administration’s budget, on the other hand, raids $1.5 trillion of the Social Security Trust Fund surplus, the very fund Congress voted five times to place in a lockbox to ensure its solvency.  This choice is unacceptable to me and it is unacceptable to the two-thirds of recipients who rely on Social Security for the majority of their income and the almost 20% of who rely on it for their entire income.  

Last year, the Congressional Budget Office projected a 10-year non-Social Security surplus of $3.1 trillion.  Just one year later, the projection has plunged to a deficit of $742 billion.  The Administration uses a series of gimmicks and unrealistic assumptions to disguise the fact that the government will run a much larger deficit than its budget predicts, virtually guaranteeing that the Social Security surplus will disappear over the next decade, leaving 200 million Americans who currently rely on Social Security or will in the future with no financial security in their most vulnerable years.  A raid on the Social Security Trust Fund today is a promise of cuts to Social Security tomorrow.  

In Rhode Island, Social Security provides a vital lifeline for a significant percentage of the population.  Rhode Island ranks fifth in the nation for the percentage of residents over 75 and sixth in the nation for those over 65.  In my district alone, 110,000 people rely on Social Security for their livelihood.  These Rhode Islanders worry about whether Social Security will continue to be there when they need it, and they are tired of hearing promises from politicians that aren’t backed up with action.

I am proud to stand with my Democratic colleagues to fight to preserve Social Security’s core structure and ensure that we do not revert to an era of overwhelming poverty among the elderly.  We have a choice.  I choose America’s seniors.  I choose a responsible, honest budget that does not sacrifice the most vulnerable among us.  I know those members who join me today have made the same choice.  I urge the rest of our colleagues to do the same.  

Thank you Mr. Speaker.