[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H727]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H727]]
      THERE IS NO BUDGET SURPLUS, THERE IS SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS

  (Mr. CAMPBELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. Speaker, there is no budget surplus. There is no 
budget surplus. There is a Social Security surplus. It is $125.5 
billion, and we ought to use it for Social Security. There is a deficit 
in the budget if you do not count Social Security, and that deficit is 
$12 billion.
  It just is not right to go with spending plans, no matter how well-
intentioned, when the source of those spending plans is Social 
Security. If my colleagues support, as the President does, increased 
college loans for students, and as the Speaker knows, I teach at a 
university, I would be one of the first to support it the moment we 
have a budget surplus. But I cannot support it. Nor can I support 
across-the-board tax cuts if the money comes from the Social Security 
surplus.
  Let us make sure the Social Security surplus is spent for Social 
Security. And when the day comes, hosanna, that we have an honest 
budget surplus, we can have a debate between tax cuts and new spending 
plans. That day is not yet at hand.

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