RUTHFULLY YOURS

Only in Washington could nearly $700 billion fester as Congress scrambles for cash.

Earth to the congressional leadership: There is precisely $687 billion in federal coffers, officially “unobligated” and, thus, available. Nonetheless, Democrats and Republicans are clobbering each other over how to finance a $185 billion one-year extension of the payroll-tax holiday to help Americans survive today’s economic hardship.

Predictably, Democrats hope to use this occasion to slap a ten-year, 1.9 percent surtax on those who earn at least $1 million. This would amplify their new battle cry: “Class war!”

Surprisingly, Republicans have proposed to raise Medicare premiums for prosperous seniors. Affluence testing of entitlements is long overdue. But without preparing the public, especially seniors, for this wise move, the GOP will bare itself to a brand-new round of left-wing lies, e.g., “Nothing gives Republicans more intense pleasure than starving Granny and shoving Gramps down the nearest storm drain.”

Meanwhile, tax hikes are even dumber than usual today, as the economy suffers nagging chest pains.

Instead, House and Senate leaders should visit Budget.gov, the Office of Management and Budget’s website, and inspect a document sizzlingly titled “Balances of Budget Authority — Budget of the U.S. Government: Fiscal Year 2012.”

Chart 2 lets this enormous cat out of the federal bag: “Unobligated balances available for future obligation are projected to total $687 billion at the end of fiscal year 2012.” Translating from Washingtonian to English, $687 billion in unspent money is accessible for other purposes.

Impossible, yet true: Just three weeks after the vaunted Supercommittee performed its Olympic-class belly flop by failing to cut $1.2 trillion from the $45 trillion that Washington anticipates spending through 2022, Congress now struggles to find $185 billion to extend the payroll-tax cut. These legislators seem almost universally unaware that $687 billion just sits there.

Previous Congresses authorized these funds, but they were not fully spent. Imagine that Congress in 2002 approved $10 billion to purchase wheelchairs for Vietnam veterans. After every eligible vet received a wheelchair, only $7 billion had been expended. The $3 billion balance then . . . slowly . . . gathers . . . dust, like money in a checking account that waits in vain for checks to be written against it.

As the OMB document explains, “Unobligated balances are the amounts of budget authority that have not yet been committed by contract or other legally binding action by the government.” Such forgotten funds lie neglected at departments and agencies all over Washington, D.C.

These sums are staggering. At the Agriculture Department: $13.7 billion. Defense (military programs): $77.8 billion. Education: $19.1 billion. Housing and Urban Development: $23.8 billion. Labor: $18 billion. Treasury: $225 billion. International assistance: $45 billion. Other independent agencies: $70.1 billion.

These figures, by the way, are not courtesy of the limited-government stalwarts at the Cato Institute or the Reason Foundation. They come directly from the OMB — President Obama’s fiscal experts at the White House.

Congress should harness the moldy cash in these accounts. A payroll-tax cut could assist Americans eager for even a scintilla of financial mercy. Using forgotten funds would enable this without steering payroll-tax revenue away from Social Security, which would speed that entitlement’s rendezvous with a cliff. Some of this money could help cut the 35 percent corporate tax (the developed world’s second-highest, after Japan’s) and, thus, defibrillate America’s flat-lined economy. The balance should finance debt reduction, so that Americans might resemble our Scottish ancestors rather than our Greek contemporaries.

Freshman congressman David Schweikert’s Forgotten Funds Act would accomplish some of these things. Schweikert is tired of watching nearly $700 billion languish, like a pile of gold bars in the Capitol Rotunda that garners hardly a glance.

“Defending the American taxpayer is now more important than ever,” the Arizona Republican told me. “During this on-going discussion of a payroll-tax holiday, common-sense offsets need to play a key part in this discussion to avoid a continued raid on Social Security.”

“While we have yet to see what a final package would look like,” Schweikert added, “the Forgotten Funds Act is one of these common-sense solutions. With nearly $700 billion locked up and out of use, releasing these funds would be a key step to protecting taxpayers.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) will offer $150 billion in budget offsets to extend the payroll-tax cut and unemployment benefits. Of this total, $23 billion will come from forgotten funds, an opportunity that Coburn first detected early this year. While this is just a start, it may encourage others to tap into this unused resource. “The fruit does not hang much lower than this,” Coburn’s communication director, John Hart, tells me.

Congress these days seems collectively incapable of crossing the street. Why not end 2011 by taking $687 billion in forgotten funds to slice spending, slash personal and business taxes, and stash cash against the national debt? Our representatives in Congress should impress voters by being leaders, not losers.

— New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.