Word: budget
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...while a line-item veto might help diminish budget pork, it would have only a negligible impact on the deficit. Huge chunks of the budget -- Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs, which total more than $325 billion -- are granted automatically and do not require annual % reauthorization. Other spending measures, such as agricultural support programs ($26 billion), are politically sacrosanct. And while some Democrats might be ready to chop away at the $298 billion in defense spending, substantial Pentagon cuts would be unlikely under any Republican Administration. Thus, spending that is truly discretionary (read politically negotiable) amounts to less than...
Aside from Ted Kennedy, most congressional Democrats consider Reagan's fiscal pieties gross hypocrisy. "His has been the biggest spending Administration in history," fumes House Budget Chairman William Gray of Pennsylvania. "And every year he returns to the tired old rhetoric that a line-item veto is the magic wand that would bring down Government spending...
Despite its post-budget bill voguishness, the line-item veto will not become a reality anytime soon. "It is something that neither this President nor any other President should have," says Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd. "It is a quack nostrum." As House Majority Leader Thomas Foley of Washington has suggested, the deficit crisis is essentially a matter of willpower. The White House, the Congress and the American public must decide together to make the sacrifices necessary to reduce the deficit. Until that time, ideas like the line-item veto will remain irrelevant oldies...
...Budget realism becomes the test as the candidates stake out positions on taxes, trade and Social Security. -- Once again, Ronald Reagan will ask for a line- item budget veto. This year, more in Congress are listening. -- Eager to launch a refitted shuttle, NASA' S contractors have let the schedule override safety concerns. -- In Utah, polygamists defy police in a log cabin siege...
Simon's plan is far more problematical. Even as he tries to refute Gephardt's charge that he represents "Reaganomics with a bow tie," Simon cannot resist the blandishments of King Canute-style economic assumptions. He purports to balance the budget by 1992, but his numbers include $45 billion in savings from a drop in unemployment and $30 billion to $40 billion recovered through a decline in interest rates. "It's like telling people you can have a diet of hot-fudge sundaes and still lose weight," insists Carol Cox, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget...