The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SOCIAL SECURITY, THE BUDGET RESOLUTION, AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE” mentioning the Federal Reserve System was published in the Senate section on pages S1442 on March 20, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SOCIAL SECURITY, THE BUDGET RESOLUTION, AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE
Mr. REID. Mr. President, we on this side of the aisle look forward to working on eliminating the Social Security earnings limitation. I just returned from Nevada. It was amazing the number of people who came up to me and said, Are you going to do finally something about eliminating the earnings test on Social Security? As the leader has said, we have talked about this a long time but done nothing. It is time now that we join together, as we are going to do Wednesday, to pass this important bill.
This legislation will pass overwhelmingly with both Democrats and Republicans voting for it. Why? Because the America of today is much different from the America of 1935 when Social Security came into being. People are living much longer lives, healthier lives, more productive lives, and there is no reason in the world why we do not have people working as long as they want and as hard as they want. We need to remove this limitation. We have a problem in America today in its lack of productivity. This legislation will help a great deal because some of the most productive people in the world are people who are over age 65. So I look forward to joining Senators on both sides of the aisle to make sure we pass this bill as quickly as possible. As the leader said, we should do it Wednesday afternoon.
In looking forward to next week, to the budget resolution, this is a time where we have an opportunity to look at what the Nation is going to do financially for the coming year. I think it is important we all prepare for this debate. There is a limited amount of time we can debate this issue. There is no limitation on the number of amendments that can be offered. We certainly hope there is not an unlimited number of amendments, but that people will give thought and consideration to the ones that are most important.
The Democrats today are going to take some time to talk about a number of issues, and leading the debate will be the chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan. When he is called upon, he is going to talk about a number of issues.
The Senator from North Dakota has certainly been a leader on the issue of the Federal Reserve System, and there is no one who has been more articulate when talking about the need to do something about the Federal Reserve System and its secretive nature, and the fact that, as an example, they have a $3.5 billion slush fund that is there to be used for many other programs in the Federal Government.
There is no need to have the Federal Reserve with this amount of money, this pot of money, this $3.5 billion that they simply have never used since its inception. This money can be used for education. It can be used for many of the other programs for which we are searching for money. I hope during today we will have a good discussion on issues that are affecting this country and that tomorrow we move forward on the social security earnings legislation.
____________________
