Courier, Sunday, 8/29/99.
by Senator Ernest (Fritz) Hollings (D-S.C.)
..........The president and Congress are trying to divide a budget pie that does not
exist.
..........The president started this nonsense when he announced that we were facing a
$3 trillion surplus [over 10 years]. Under Section 13-301 of the Budget Act, $2 trillion of
this $3 trillion belongs to Social Security. The law is very specific. You
can't pay down any debt --- be it public debt, private debt, government debt ---
with this money. It belongs to Social Security.
..........So, if you leave the $2 trillion where it belongs, you have $1 trillion left
to pay down the debt, give tax cuts or spend more. But $748 billion of this
belongs to other trust funds such as Medicare, military retirement, civil
service retirement, the Unemployment Compensation Fund, the Highway Fund, the
Airport Fund, Railroad Retirement and others.
..........This leaves $252 billion. But the government estimates of $252 billion
assume: 1) that the Congress over the next 10 years will stay within the
spending caps set in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act; 2) there is no emergency
spending over the 10 years; 3) there is no increase in discretionary spending
beyond inflation.
..........But Congress has already busted the caps to the tune of $20 billion. Billions
for a census that we have taken since 1790 is now all of a sudden an
emergency. And just the defense budget agreed to exceeds inflation by $10
billion.
..........Presto - the $3 trillion surplus has disappeared. The reality - the
Congressional Budget Office has just reported that for this fiscal year,
which ends in six weeks, we will have spent $103 billion more than we take in
--- a deficit of $103 billion. We start the millennium with a deficit of more
than $100 billion - not a surplus --- and a national debt of $5.6 trillion with
interest costs of $1 billion per day being added to the debt.
..........With this fiscal cancer, talk of spreading it, cutting revenues or increased
spending is blasphemy.