Word: budgeting
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...finding it easier to make campaign promises than to keep them. Less than two months after taking over, Hatoyama's administration is being forced into a difficult balancing act between the need to prevent a double-dip recession and the desire to keep Japan's budget deficit from spinning out of control. The recession is knocking tax revenues so far below expectations that the deficit will rise to $548 billion this year, an enormous 10% of GDP. Yet, despite Hatoyama's instructions to keep next year's spending no higher than this year's initial budget of $970 billion...
...Thankfully, in the face of mounting bad news on the budget front, Hatoyama is not stubbornly clinging to pledges of fiscal austerity. Major spending cuts have been rendered unrealistic by the current economic climate. Falling real wages and low business investment mean Japan's recovery is fragile. A recent Nikkei newspaper survey showed that 38% of top Japanese executives rated the likelihood of another downturn next year as high or somewhat high. The biggest risk, cited by 69% of respondents, was "the effect of fiscal stimulus measures wearing off." Hatoyama appears to be willing to continue stimulus spending under...
...delaying or reducing these programs to hold down the deficit, and by repeatedly setting budget and spending targets that he is unable to keep, Hatoyama runs the risk of making it look as if he is being dragged along by events rather than taking charge of a difficult situation. He claims that this apparent waffling will not hurt the DPJ's popularity, saying recently that "the public is flexible about the [DPJ's] policy manifesto." Certainly it seems to have done no harm so far. In mid-October, the government's approval rating remained very high...
...Medicare reimburses. Given that Medicare reimbursement rates can be 30% lower than those paid by private insurers, such a system could be a powerful one at holding down costs and could save the Federal Government $110 billion over 10 years, according to the most recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). (The Federal Government's costs here would primarily be the subsidies it gives low- and middle-income people to help pay their premiums.) Not surprisingly, that robust public option faces strong opposition from doctors and hospitals, who complain they are already underpaid by Medicare, as well as from...
...addition, Groupon has discussed giving the UC $1.25 for every student that signs up on the Groupon e-mail list. The funds will be returned to the SIC budget which is used to fund programs such as the DAPA grants and the new UC Cameras Program...