>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.”
