Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 111 Part 3.djvu/655

 '^9^:' CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS-JUNE 5, 1997 111 STAT. 2743 (C) in 1994, the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform concluded that if no changes are made to current entitlement laws, all Federal revenues will be spent on entitlement programs and interest on the debt by the year 2012; (D) the Congressional Budget Office has also recently issued a report that found that pressure on the budget from demographics and rising health care costs will increase dramatically after 2002; and (E) making significant entitlement changes will significantly benefit the economy, and will forestall the need for more drastic tax and spending decisions in future years. (2) CPI. —The Senate finds that with respect to accuracy in determining changes in the cost of living— (A) the Final Report of the Senate Finance Committee's Advisory Commission to study the CPI has concluded that the Consumer Price Index overstates the cost of living in the United States by 1.1 percentage points; (B) the overstatement of the cost of living by the Consumer Price Index has been recognized by economists since at least 1961, when a report noting the existence of the overstatement was issued by a National Bureau of Economic Research Committee, chaired by Professor George J. Stigler; (C) Congress and the President, through the indexing of Federal tax brackets. Social Security benefits, and other Federal program benefits, have undertaken to protect taxpayers and beneficiaries of such programs from the erosion of purchasing power due to inflation; and (D) the overstatement of the cost of living increases the deficit and undermines the equitable administration of Federal benefits and tax policies. (b) SENSE OF THE SENATE. —I t is the sense of the Senate that the provisions in this resolution assume that— (1) Congress and the President should continue working to enact structural entitlement reforms in the 1997 budget agreement and in subsequent legislation; (2) Congress and the President must find the most accurate measure of the change in the cost of living in the United States, and should work in a bipartisan manner to implement any changes that are necessary to achieve an accurate measure; and (3) Congress and the President must work to ensure that the 1997 budget agreement not only keeps the unified budget in balance after 2002, but that additional measures should be taken to begin to achieve substantial surpluses which will improve the economy and allow our nation to be ready for the retirement of the baby boom generation in the year 2012. SEC. 312. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON TACTICAL FIGHTER AIRCRAFT PROGRAMS. (a) FINDINGS. —The Senate finds that— (1) the Department of Defense has proposed to modernize the United States tactical fighter aircraft force through three tactical fighter procurement programs, including the F/A-18 E/F aircraft program of the Navy, the F-22 aircraft program

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