[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 656 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 656

                   To guarantee honesty in budgeting.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 9, 1999

Mr. Stearns (for himself and Ms. Rivers) 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 
1999''.

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 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 2004, a cumulative 5-year deficit is added to the 
        national debt.
            (3) The Congressional Budget Office projects that the 
        annual deficit will increase dramatically over the 5-year 
        budget cycle and, further, the fictional social security trust 
        fund balance will also rise 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>