Word: brings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...with speculative shadows and smoke. Were the nation's huge trade and budget deficits really the problem? The point was expertly argued both ways. Would raising taxes now help the economy or send the economy into a recession? Reagan was expected to lower the budget deficit, soothe the markets, bring down interest rates and keep the dollar steady. At the same time, he must be careful not to discourage consumer spending and capital investment. Reagan, believer in the genius of the free market, instinctively recoils at Government fixes, especially in a tangle as dense as this. Still, fatalism...
...thus the congressional system seems stacked against fiscal prudence, against putting the national interest over special interests. There are votes to be had for talking about spending restraint, but not for exercising it; each member, in the end, feels judged by what projects he can bring home to his district, by what pet programs he can protect for his constituency groups...
...environmental regulations and rules concerning safety in the workplace; yet he won high marks from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill for his adept handling of the job. "He can walk through land mines," says former OMB General Counsel Michael Horowitz. "He's careful, thoughtful and manages to bring people together...
...help for it: the greatest risk of all would be to confirm investors' fears that U.S. economic policy will remain paralyzed by indecision and partisan bickering. That might bring on a still worse crash, a world financial crisis and a shattering global recession. Moreover, there does seem to be a way out. In outline: Start now a program to cut the budget deficit steadily and substantially through a mixture of spending cuts and, yes, tax increases. Cushion the blow to the American economy -- and there will be some blow -- by easing Federal Reserve monetary policy and allowing interest rates...
...whatever cost in immediate pain. Says Barry Bosworth of the Brookings Institution: "Risk of a recession is unavoidable. But a failure to act is even worse. We cannot live with this deficit in the long run." Harvard Economist Lawrence Summers agrees: "Doing nothing about the deficit would definitely bring about an eventual recession...