Congress Mandates It Be Misinformed

[sawicky@xxxxxxxxxx (Max Sawicky)]

>From Ellen Taylor of OMB Watch:

Yesterday evening, the House passed the Debt Relief Lock-Box
Reconciliation Act for FY 2001 (HR 5173) almost unanimously,
with well more than the required two-thirds majority (381 to 3).
. . .

Finally, no official statement, publication or material of any Federal
government agency or instrumentality can include the Social
Security, Medicare, and ?Public Debt Reduction Payment Account?
surpluses as part of the overall budget surplus or deficit totals.
Instead, the Social Security, Medicare, and ?Public Debt Reduction
Payment Account? balances must be submitted in separate budget
documents.   Presumably this means that the federal government
could no longer speak or write about an overall (unified) budget
surplus.  This seems to be along the lines of ?if we can?t talk about
it, we can?t spend it.?