Almost unnoticed, Congress and the Clinton administration are engaged in diverting $3 billion from a fund for telecommunications services to help balance the budget.

• The universal service fund was established less than three months ago by the Federal Communications Commission to assure "affordable" telephone service for all users and to guarantee classrooms, libraries and rural hospitals access to advanced communications, such as the Internet.

• Businesses and other high-volume users of telecom services pay for the fund through an added charge.

• Critics say the fund is actually a tax and ask how the FCC could be allowed to institute it on its own -- since the House Ways and Means Committee alone has the power to initiate tax legislation.

Critics say the universal service fund is just another means of extracting tax money from citizens in order to support spending on social programs.

Source: Thomas J. Duesterberg (Hudson Institute), Investor's Business Daily, August 4, 1997.