Senator DeMint offered an amendment today to the budget resolution that would allow Congress to stop spending Social Security surpluses on other government programs. Senator DeMint believes it is time to have a vote on Social Security to see who supports raiding the program and who does not.

Specifically, the DeMint Amendment creates a reserve fund in the budget resolution that would allow (but not force) Congress to pass legislation protecting all or part of the Social Security surpluses. The DeMint Amendment stipulates 3 requirements for any legislation considered under the budget:

If legislation were considered under this amendment, the Chairman of the Budget Committee would have to direct the various committees to generate savings in other areas to offset the amount of surpluses dedicated to Social Security. In effect, the amendment would force Congress to make difficult choices today to make Social Security more secure tomorrow.

Congress has been raiding the Social Security surplus for over twenty years. Including interest, Congress has now spent $1.7 trillion of Social Security money on other government programs. According to the Social Security Administration, Social Security will continue to run surpluses until 2017 at which time benefits will exceed revenues. The DeMint Amendment would help Congress pass legislation to protect these surpluses for the next 5 years (FY 2007-2011), which will total $423 billion.

The vote on the DeMint Amendment will likely occur sometime Thursday night and it will answer an important question – whether the Senate wants to stop spending the Social Security surplus on other government programs.

So it's time to call your parents, your grandma, your brothers and sisters, and your dog and tell them to call their Senator and URGE him or her to pass the DeMint "Reserve Fund for Social Security Amendment" to Senate Concurrent Resolution number 83.

You can find your Senator at the following page:

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