For the first time since 1969, the United States Government will have a budget surplus. The government reported the surplus to be approximately $70 billion.

“Tonight at midnight America puts an end to three decades of deficits and launches a new era of balanced budgets and surpluses,” President Clinton said.

During his State of the Union address on Jan. 21, Clinton proposed to use the surplus to bail out Social Security’s dwindling funds and spend 100 percent of the surplus on it.

The dwindling funds are a major concern to Baby Boomers and retirees all around the country. At the current state of the program, benefits for retirees in 2010 will need to be paid by workers in 2010, not by today’s workers according to MSNBC.

Now that the government actually has money to spend, Congressional Republicans would like to give working Americans a tax cut instead of Clinton’s plan for saving Social Security. The GOP has proposed an $80 billion dollar tax cut. Can you find the hidden objective of Republicans in Congress?

It seems clear that those Republicans in favor of the tax cut are planning for their elections this fall and not for the long-term good of the country. Tax cuts are always a nice little touch around election time, and they go over big with most voters. Politicians commonly use promises to get votes.

George Bush did it when he was campaigning for the presidency against Michael Dukakis; he was never able to implement the cuts, but the promise got him elected.

Republicans in Congress are simply using this to buy voters by appealing to their greed and showing feigned concern for their pocketbooks.

President Clinton is headed on the right track with his plan for the budget surplus. He is planning to lead the country into the 21st-century with a surplus and healthy government programs, which is better than any tax-cut or election-year lollypop the Republicans are offering any day.

For once, the government has money to solve problems that face this country’s future.

Tax cuts would not let us do that.

While we have the money, we need to spend it on the good of the country. Our economy is doing well and unemployment is low, so let’s do what we can now and not waste a perfect opportunity. We have a surplus $70 billion dollars because of good planning — let’s not waste it because of poor planning.