Word: budgetable
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
President-elect Obama inherits the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression: the financial sector is in ruins; the budget is hemorrhaging red ink; debt-ridden households have clamped down on spending, thereby pulling the rug out from under the economy; unemployment is soaring; the country is in two wars; and the unmet social and environmental needs are vast. These conditions demand a fundamental realignment in strategy that ultimately comes back to taxation: Will we pay for the government we need? Obama's big domestic program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, proposes doubling renewable-energy production and making public...
There are certainly some straightforward ways to start closing the budget gap. The Bush tax cuts for the rich should be rolled back this year, not next, to start collecting about 0.5% of GDP in extra revenues from those who can most easily pay, though this might just partly offset other tax cuts and recession-induced declines in tax collections. The spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should be ended, not prolonged, saving at least 1% of GDP. We'd still probably be close to $1 trillion (perhaps 6.5% of GDP) shy of budget balance. With the economy...
...Poverty when the Vietnam War intruded. Jimmy Carter failed to close the deficit through higher taxes in the late 1970s. And Ronald Reagan made tax cuts the down payment on every election since. George W. Bush, of course, imitated Reagan in cutting taxes, thereby creating huge new budget deficits. Voters are still willing to permit the government to expand its share of GDP, particularly in the face of national crises - and we are certainly in the middle of one. Tax revenues jumped from just 5% of GDP in 1936 to 15% to 20% during and after World War II, creating...
...budget choices were getting tougher in the 1970s, Europe faced similar dilemmas and took a different course. While Americans rejected new taxes and new domestic programs, Europeans elected governments that introduced higher taxation, mainly value-added taxes, to cover the rising costs of health care, education, infrastructure, poverty relief and international-development aid. Ultimately, the Europeans restrained excessive growth in the welfare state in order to maintain global competitiveness and rebalance their economies and succeeded in sustaining the public-private partnerships and welfare-state benefits...
...will most likely deteriorate. State employees are facing payroll cuts, unpaid leaves and a hiring freeze. Money for firefighting in parched Southern California is drying up, as is financing for levees in flood-plagued northern environs of the state. And that's just for starters as California faces a budget deficit of more than $41 billion over the next 18 months. (See pictures of the aftermath of a California firestorm...