Vice President Gore Gets “Religion” on Social Security Trust Fund

For Immediate Release: August 24, 2000
VICE PRESIDENT GORE GETS “RELIGION” ON SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND
Statement by 60 Plus Association President Jim Martin

Washington, D.C. — Vice President Al Gore has suddenly gotten religion when it comes to the Social Security Trust Fund.

Mr. Gore’s pledge to ‘shore up and protect the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds’ with a lock box clearly rings hollow when you consider

1) the House of Representatives voted over a year ago on May 26, 1999 to do just that, by an overwhelming 416-12 bipartisan margin;
2) the Senate on seven occasions failed to follow suit simply because Senate Democrats voted seven times against the ‘lock box’ concept.

The 60 Plus Association cannot do the extensive research that the national news media can, but thus far our research finds that not once during his 16 years in the House and Senate did Mr. Gore ever speak out against the annual spending of Social Security Trust Fund monies for other government programs. Democrats and Republicans alike denounced this practice, most notably the late Republican Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and South Carolina’s junior Democrat, Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, who excoriated the annual raids as ’embezzlement’ saying that if companies in the private sector spent funds set aside for other purposes, those responsible would go to jail.

His ‘shoring up Social Security and Medicare’ dictum is a shameless slogan in light of the fact that during his 16 years in Congress Mr. Gore’s silence on this issue was deafening. Seniors see through this ploy.

60 Plus is a nonpartisan senior citizen advocacy group. 60 Plus strives to be fair to politicians in both parties, praising them when called for, chastising them also when they need it.”Seniors were pleased when the House voted last year to stop these raids on Social Security and seniors would be interested in hearing Mr. Gore’s explanation as to why he is 16 years late in speaking out against these previous raids.”

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In response to Vice President Gore’s latest visit to Florida on August 23, 2000.