As Congress prepares to vote next week on the Fiscal Year 2002 Budget Resolution, Congressman Adam Smith will host 9th district citizens in a forum on balancing the budget entitled DebtBusters. The workshop will be held on Saturday, April 28 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Port of Tacoma conference room at the Tacoma World Trade Center, located at 3600 Port of Tacoma Road East.

Participants will be divided into small groups and given information on the federal government's budget and future projections. They will then face the daunting task of balancing the budget. Citizens will decide which programs to increase, freeze, or cut and whether or now we should raise, maintain, or cut taxes.

"One of my goals is to bring government closer to the people," explained Smith. "This exercise is a great way for constituents to learn more about the choices their representatives struggle with in Congress, and even more important, I will learn what their priorities and preferences are."

The DebtBusters programs is co-sponsored by the Concord Coalition, an organization dedicated to balancing the budget.

Press is encouraged to attend.

WHAT: DebtBusters Workshop
WHEN: Saturday, April 28, 2001 - 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: World Trade Center Building, Port of Tacoma Conference Room, 3600 Port of Tacoma Road East
CONTACT: Congressman Adam Smith's Tacoma Office at 253-926-6683

U.S. Representative Adam Smith announced today that he has reintroduced the Honesty in Budgeting Act, which he had originally introduced in the 106th Congress. The bill encouraged Members of Congress and the executive branch to be honest with the public about true on-budget circumstances.

"I introduced this bill to tackle a very important problem," Smith explained. "Although Social Security is technically off-budget, politicians and government agencies still use the Social Security trust fund to mask the budget deficit. This perception that we have much larger budget surplus confuses and angers the public. I've included the Medicare surplus as well, because with the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers, it's clear we're going to need those surpluses to pay out benefits in the future. The bottom line is, we shouldn't be dipping into either the Medicare or Social Security trust funds, and the public has the right to know about the true state of our federal budget. That's why my bill will help accomplish."

Specifically the bill would encourage the exclusion of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds from the annual Federal budget baseline, and would prohibit trust fund surpluses to be used as offsets for tax cuts of spending increases. It would also exclude both trust funds from any official budget surplus or deficit pronouncements.

Congressman Smith is currently working with his Congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle in hopes to convince them that passing the Honesty in Budgeting Act is the right thing to do.

"This is not a Democratic or Republican idea; This is simply good public policy that both parties should support because it will help us regain the trust of the American people," Smith concluded.