On Thursday, June 11, USA Today published an article by William M. Welch titled "Federal Surplus Depends On How You Look At It" which claimed that "the CBO stuck by its projection that the federal government wil finish this fisdal year September 30 with a surplus of $43 billion to $63 billion, slightly more than the Clinton administration predicts." But then Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Fritz Hollings (D-SC) wrote a letter to Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) June O'Neill that said:
	"The rosy declarations of a surplus, touted by congressional leaders and President Clinton, are all wet. We believe you have a responsibility to report accurately to the American people that, until revenues exceed expenditures without using the Social Security trust fund, there is no budget surplus." According to the USA Today article, "O'Neill responded last week, saying she agrees and promising a change. 'I regret that the report you cited failed to report the on-budget deficit, excluding the surplus of the Social Security trust funds." Unfortunately, Ms. O'Neill resigned before the end of the fiscal year. History Senator Ernest F. (Fritz) Hollings authored a bill that Congress overwhelmingly approved and President Bush signed into law on November 5, 1990, known as Section 13301 of the Budget Act forbidding the president or Congress from reporting a budget using Social Security trust funds. In an article titled "What Surplus" published by The Washington Post on February 5, 1998, Senator Hollings wrote that "this stricture is violated every day. Even today, submitting a budget with a projected surplus, the president is in violation of Section 13301. Worse, he is in violation of his own admonition in the State of the Union message. 'Tonight I propose that we reserve 100 percent of the surplus -- that's every penny of any surplus -- until we have taken all measures necessary to strengthen the Social Security system for the 21st century.'" For the last 16 years or so, the Washington borrowholics have been taking billions not only from the Social Security trust funds, but from other entitlement trust funds as well. The grand total stolen is now more than $1.7 trillion with Social Security, the largest trust, contributing more than $700 billion, about $730 billion by the end of this fiscal year on September 30, 1998.