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Social Security is a tax.

All of us who serve in the House of Representatives and the Senate pay into Social Security.

The 1993 Social Security tax penalizes seniors who have planned for their retirement through savings, investment and hard work. That's wrong, and that's why the double tax on Social Security must end.

It has to have a payroll tax that's dedicated to Social Security. The Social Security tax has been very successful over the years in raising almost all of our elderly citizens out of poverty.

More retirees, longer life expectancy, larger benefits, and fewer workers - these trends have meant substantial increases in the payroll tax. Since the social security program began, the payroll tax has increased more than 500 percent.

Social Security is the very foundation of retirement security for millions of Americans.

The reality is that the workforce relative to the number of people retired has shrunk and today in America there are only 3.3 working Americans paying payroll taxes to support each individual currently retired and collecting Social Security taxes.

We had 90 percent taxes before in America. All right? Didn't work.

As a matter of fact, if you do not take into account, as Congressman Ross just stated, the Social Security surplus, our fiscal deficit, ladies and gentlemen, is over $700 billion today.

Today there are about 40 million retirees receiving benefits; by the time all the baby boomers have retired, there will be more than 72 million retirees drawing Social Security benefits.