[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 185 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 185

  To express the sense of the Senate that Congress should save Social 
Security first and should finance any tax cuts or new investments with 
   other funds until legislation is enacted to make Social Security 
actuarially sound and capable of paying future retirees the benefits to 
                        which they are entitled.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 26, 1998

 Mr. Hollings (for himself, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Daschle, Mrs. Murray, Mr. 
Johnson, Mr. Ford, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Lautenberg, and Mr. Reid) submitted 
   the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                                Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  To express the sense of the Senate that Congress should save Social 
Security first and should finance any tax cuts or new investments with 
   other funds until legislation is enacted to make Social Security 
actuarially sound and capable of paying future retirees the benefits to 
                        which they are entitled.

    Resolved,

SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON THE BUDGET AND SOCIAL SECURITY.

    (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--
            (1) the Social Security system provides benefits to 
        44,000,000 Americans, including 27,300,000 retirees, over 
        4,500,000 people with disabilities, 3,800,000 surviving 
        children, and 8,400,000 surviving adults, and is essential to 
        the dignity and security of the Nation's elderly and disabled;
            (2) the Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors 
        Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds have reported to 
        Congress that the ``total income'' of the Social Security 
        system ``is estimated to fall short of expenditures beginning 
        in 2019 and in each year thereafter . . . until [trust fund] 
        assets are exhausted in 2029'';
            (3) intergenerational fairness, honest accounting 
        principles, prudent budgeting, and sound economic policy all 
        require saving Social Security first, in order that the Nation 
        may better afford the retirement of the baby boom generation 
        beginning in 2010;
            (4) in reforming Social Security in 1983, Congress intended 
        that near-term Social Security trust fund surpluses be used to 
        prefund the retirement of the baby boom generation;
            (5) in his State of the Union message to the joint session 
        of Congress on January 27, 1998, President Clinton called on 
        Congress to ``save Social Security first'' and to ``reserve one 
        hundred percent of the surplus, that is any penny of any 
        surplus, until we have taken all the necessary measures to 
        strengthen the Social Security system for the twenty-first 
        century''; and
            (6) saving Social Security first would work to expand 
        national savings, reduce interest rates, enhance private 
        investment, increase labor productivity, and boost economic 
        growth.
    (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that 
Congress should save Social Security first by reserving any unified 
budget surplus until legislation is enacted to make Social Security 
actuarially sound and capable of paying future retirees the benefits to 
which they are entitled.
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