WASHINGTON — The Concord Coalition today urged Congressional leaders
to exclude the entire Social Security surplus from consideration in
this year’s budget deliberations.
WASHINGTON — The Concord Coalition today urged Congressional leaders
to exclude the entire Social Security surplus from consideration in
this year’s budget deliberations.
"The strongest possible signal Congress could send about its
determination to save the Social Security surplus would be to adopt a
budget plan that honors the program’s ‘off-budget’ status," said
Concord Coalition Policy Director Robert Bixby. "The debate over what
to do with budget surpluses should begin with a bipartisan agreement
that there is no surplus to divvy up until the budget is balanced
without counting Social Security."
Concord also called upon Congressional leaders to maintain the
discretionary spending caps enacted in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and
to keep the current "pay-as-you-go" offset requirement for tax cuts and
entitlement spending increases. "Mere projections of budget surpluses
‘for as far as the eye can see’ should not lead to a meltdown in fiscal
discipline," Bixby said.
Concord suggested that if the discretionary caps are revised to
a higher level, long-term budget discipline could be maintained by
requiring that any such increase be offset on the "pay-as-you-go" side
of the budget.
Despite recent improvements, current fiscal policy remains
unsustainable over the long-term according to the Congressional Budget
Office and the General Accounting Office. Concord therefore believes
that great care should be taken to avoid new initiatives that would
make the long-term outlook even worse.
