Right now, the public and elected officials alike are confused about our federal budget. Both President Clinton and the Republican Congressional leadership said we had a budget surplus last year, but the national debt still increased. The public asked, how could we have a surplus but still increase the debt? That is a good question.

The answer is that we didn't really have a surplus last year. We had a $29 billion deficit in the budget, and a $99 billion Social Security trust fund surplus. Politicians who wanted to make the numbers seem better than they were ignored those numbers and focused on the ``unified'' budget surplus of $70 billion, misleading the American people into thinking that we had extra money in our budget.

The Honesty in Budgeting Act does several things to help remedy that problem. First of all, it simply expresses the sense of the House that all of us in Congress and those in the White House should stop misleading the public and instead talk about the real budget numbers--the on-budget numbers. Second, it reinforces Social Security's off-budget status. Finally, it directs the official budgeting agencies of the government, the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget, to stop including Social Security trust funds in its report to Congress and the American public. This is important because while we have previously taken Social Security off-budget, too many elected officials still talk and act like nothing's changed. Eliminating the trust funds figures from the official reports of the CBO and OMB will force Congress to focus on the real budget numbers and stop masking budget deficits with the Social Security trust fund.

I believe that the Honesty in Budgeting Act is particularly important as we now enter an era of surpluses. Latest economic projections indicate substantial budget surpluses as early as this year. These surpluses are non-Social Security surpluses, which is great news. But as we start talking about how to use those surpluses, whether it is to cut taxes, increase investment in education or defense or to pay down the national debt, we must start the debate with honesty. We must set aside all of the Social Security trust fund surpluses for what it is obligated--Social Security--and then have a national discussion about what we should do with any additional surpluses.