[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23349]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      CBO SAYS SPENDING PLAN WILL NOT USE SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS

  (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I am going to depart from my 
prepared remarks to try and set the record straight. We had a number of 
representatives from the other side of the aisle who have gotten up to 
say that our Republican spending plan would spend Social Security 
money. They have even shown newspaper articles to bolster their 
contention. The newspaper articles are wrong. They are wrong.

  Let me read again from a letter from the Congressional Budget Office 
dated September 30, that is today, to the Speaker.

  ``Dear Mr. Speaker: You requested that we estimate the impact on the 
fiscal year 2000 Social Security surplus using CBO's economic and 
technical assumptions based on a plan whereby net discretionary outlays 
for fiscal year 2000 will equal $592.1 billion.'' That is the 
Republican spending plan. ``CBO estimates that this spending plan will 
not use any of the projected Social Security surplus in the year 
2000.''

  Being a teacher, I know that repetition is the soul of learning, so 
let me say it again to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: 
``CBO estimates that this spending plan will not use any of the 
projected Social Security surplus in the fiscal year 2000.'' Do my 
colleagues get it?

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