Wendell Ford: “I have but a few minutes to speak this morning on behalf of the Reid-Ford-Feinstein balanced budget amendment. So I will…”

“I have but a few minutes to speak this morning on behalf of the Reid-Ford-Feinstein balanced budget amendment. So I will concentrate my remarks this morning on trust. The public trusts the Congress to keep the Nation's finances in order. Nowhere is that agreement and that trust more evident or more important than in governing the Social Security trust fund. In the debate over our amendment and the Simon amendment, honesty and protection of the trust fund have played a very big role. Right now, surpluses in the trust funds are being used to hide the true amount of the deficit. The biggest example of this is in Social Security, but it is by no means alone in this distinction. During the 1980's, we allowed the Federal trust funds to run up huge surpluses. We would collect a gasoline tax to fund highway construction but then not spend it all on highways, thus creating an accounting surplus. The problem is, we did spend money elsewhere creating masked deficit and budgetary illusions. The Simon amendment will allow us to continue to do this. I have a speech in my folder that I made back in October of 1987 that addressed this very issue. This particular speech dealt with the Aviation trust fund. At the time, it represented a $6 billion surplus. Mr. President, I say to my colleagues that that is only peanuts when compared to Social Security.”