[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4012 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4012

                   To guarantee honesty in budgeting.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 5, 1998

 Mr. Stearns introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on the Budget, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and 
 Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                   To guarantee honesty in budgeting.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Honest Balanced Budget Act of 
1998''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The social security system runs an annual surplus that 
        is invested in Government bonds. The Treasury thus borrows the 
        surplus, which is projected to approach $100,000,000,000 in 
        1999, and spends these monies on programs unrelated to social 
        security.
            (2) In fact, when the projected annual social security 
        trust fund surplus is removed from the baseline calculations 
        through 2003, a cumulative 5-year deficit of about 
        $518,000,000,000 is added to the national debt.
            (3) The Congressional Budget Office projects that the 
        annual deficit will range from $136,000,000,000 to 
        $190,000,000,000 over the 5-year budget cycle and, further, the 
        fictional social security trust fund balance will rise from 
        $730,000,000,000 to $1,380,000,000,000 during this period.

SEC. 3. SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND PROTECTION.

    The receipts and disbursements of the social security trust funds 
included in the gross Federal debt shall not be--
            (1) included in the Federal budget baseline for any fiscal 
        year; and
            (2) counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts, or 
        deficit or surplus for purposes of--
                    (A) offsetting any tax decrease; and
                    (B) offsetting any spending increase.
                                 <all>