SOCIAL SECURITY ISN'T BAILOUT FOR OVERSPENDING U.S.Byline: Elton Gallegly Elton W. Gallegly (born March 7 1944), an American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1987, currently representing the 24th District of California (map). THE first sentence of the U.S. code A multivolume publication of the text of statutes enacted by Congress. Until 1926, the positive law for federal legislation was published in one volume of the Revised Statutes of 1875, and then in each sub-sequent volume of the statutes at large. dealing with Social Security reads: ``There is hereby created on the books of the Treasury of the United States, a trust fund to be known as the `Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund,' '' commonly known as Social Security. Nowhere in this law is there a provision which allows the federal government to raid the fund at will for spending on other government programs like foreign assistance or public housing. Yet, that is exactly what will happen if we allow Social Security to remain part of a balanced-budget amendment. This year and every other year for the next two decades, Social Security will bring in more money than it pays out. In 1996 alone, the Social Security Trust Fund ran a $65 billion surplus. This is good news, however, putting Social Security ``on budget'' for the purpose of lowering the deficit calculation or worse, to fund other government spending, directly contradicts the intentions of the trust fund. More importantly, it misleads all Americans, who believe their Social Security taxes are being set aside for their retirement and that of future generations. In short, using Social Security for other than its intended purpose, our seniors, is just plain dishonest. To further the case for excluding Social Security from a balanced-budget amendment, a recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is a non-profit think tank which describes itself as a "policy organization ... working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. states inclusion of Social Security in deficit calculations will hamper the ability to build up a Social Security surplus to help pay for the retirement of the baby boomers. As a result, the possibility of raising Social Security taxes or cutting benefits looms ominously. We should be saving Social Security's surplus, now, for our senior citizens and into the future when the baby boomers retire and are counting on Social Security. Instead, we are commingling Combining things into one body. The term commingling is most often applied to funds or assets. When a fiduciary, a person entrusted with the management of funds other than his or her own in trust, mixes trust money with that of others, the fiduciary is commingling funds and using Social Security's current surplus to finance deficit spending Deficit spending When government spending overwhelms government revenue resulting in government borrowing. deficit spending Expenditures that are in excess of revenues during a given period of time. . I have always supported a balanced budget Balanced budget A budget in which the income equals expenditure. See: budget. balanced budget A budget in which the expenditures incurred during a given period are matched by revenues. . To that end, if we must amend the Constitution, I will support a balanced-budget amendment. Congress, like America's families, needs to live within its means. No smoke and mirrors. No voodoo economics Voodoo Economics A slanderous term used by President George H. W. Bush in reference to President Reagan's economic policies known as Reaganomics. Notes: Before President Bush became Reagan's Vice President, he viewed his eventual running mate's economic policies less then . Just an honest balanced budget that will not mask the true size of the deficit from the American people. |
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