11.  He pledged to use the surplus money instead to pay down the federal debt.

12.  He said he would use any so-called budget surplus money to save Social Security unless the Federal Reserve Board fails to cut interest rates further.

13.  House and Senate negotiators accepted a proposal in the House bill that would allow some companies to withdraw surplus money from their pension funds to help pay other costs.

14.  It relieves families of some of the need to save for retirement and turns over surplus money to the Treasury, rather than to private capital markets.

15.  Most of the money in the emergency bill would come from surplus Social Security money, infuriating fiscal conservatives.

16.  Republican leaders in Congress have vowed to keep their hands off the billions of dollars in surplus Social Security money.

17.  Republicans, however, insisted that the only way to keep lawmakers from overspending is by giving surplus money back to taxpayers.

18.  Republicans denied they were making the change to hide use of Social Security surplus money in their spending plans.

19.  Some Republicans have been arguing that at least some part of any surplus money should go to pay off not just the deficit, but the national debt.

20.  The House is devoting most of its discretionary surplus money to education.