Heh, Heh. Here is more. It is mean to be a serious text, but still a joke.
January 29, 1999
U.S. Budget Surplus Is Expected
To Exceed Earlier Projections
By GREG HITT and ELIZABETH CROWLEY
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. budget surplus is expected to total nearly $2.3 trillion over the next decade, hundreds of billions of dollars beyond what was projected just a few months ago.
A new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which will be released formally Friday, confirms the rosier fiscal outlook signaled by President Clinton. His State of the Union address was chock full of initiatives he hopes to finance from the surplus.
Just in August, the CBO was projecting the surplus would amount to $1.55 trillion over the next 10 years. The estimate covers all government accounts, including Social Security. The portion of the surplus outside Social Security is growing significantly for the first time, under CBO's projections, and is expected to total more than $780 billion over the next 10 years. In August, CBO didn't foresee major growth in the surplus outside Social Security.
The U.S. economic expansion is expected to continue over the next year or so, "albeit at a more moderate pace," CBO Director June O'Neill said in a statement submitted to the Senate Budget Committee. "There is significant danger, however, that a worsening international financial situation or other developments could lead to a more precipitous slowdown in the U.S., which in turn could threaten the anticipated budget surpluses in the near turn," Ms. O'Neill said.
Mr. Clinton's budget is due out Monday. He plans to seek a $2.5 billion increase in housing funds, including $500 million to expand a rental-assistance voucher program for the poor and the elderly.
The proposed Housing Department budget includes several new programs, including a $150 million initiative to create inner-city jobs and a $50 million plan to rebuild abandoned buildings.
Mr. Clinton is to announce the more than $28 billion budget proposal Friday at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors here, where he is scheduled to unveil his urban agenda.
HUD funds 1.6 million vouchers a year; the proposal would provide another 100,000. Through its voucher system, HUD pays the difference between 30% of a holder's monthly income and the market-value rent. According to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies 1998 report, 5.7 million households qualified for, but didn't receive, vouchers last year.
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