Word: deficit
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Bush despairs. "If it weren't for this deficit looming over everything else," he said, "I'd feel like a spring colt." The emphasis carried into the Inaugural. "A thousand points of light," Bush's call for increased volunteerism, can be interpreted as a deficit-constrained alternative to federally funded programs. Soothing symbols may be all that the less fortunate get from the Bush Administration because, as the President said, "we have a deficit to bring down . . . We have more will than wallet...
...know the magnitude of the problem long ago? Bush wants the nation to believe he did not -- a claim reminiscent of his assertion that he was out of the loop when Iran-contra went awry. To TIME last week, the President professed surprise. "I've started going over the ((deficit)) numbers finally, and they're enormous," he said. "I've been going over the realities of the budget . . . There are constrained resources . . . We've got to be a little careful in terms of not saying what year which initiatives would be undertaken or accomplished...
Supporting this incredible confession, Bush's aides have described a period of "reality therapy" for the President. "Frankly," says one, "he didn't understand the deficit until after the election. The sessions have been real eye-openers and have shown him how crucial a budget strategy is to everything else he wants to accomplish." Transition co-director Craig Fuller, who was Bush's vice-presidential chief of staff, agrees that the President has but recently delved deep into the budget. Bush is only now fully aware of the difficulties facing his "flexible freeze," says Fuller, especially if interest rates...
Ronald Reagan was luckier. He discovered a passel of single-minded, if not exactly single-armed, economists who called themselves supply-siders. They promised Reagan that he could cut taxes, rebuild U.S. military might and reduce the budget deficit, all at the same time. While the President eagerly followed the script, the deficit forgot its lines. Instead of shrinking each year, it added $1.3 trillion to the U.S. national debt during Reagan's two terms, more than doubling the total burden...
...disturbing sign of the new times popped up last week, when the Government reported that the U.S. trade deficit surged in November to $12.5 billion, up from $10.3 billion the previous month. The stalled progress in narrowing the trade gap brings into question a central assumption of U.S. trade strategy: that the weak dollar will continue to shrink the deficit by making U.S. exports cheaper overseas and imported goods more expensive for American shoppers. But U.S. imports just keep on rising. That partly reflects what some economists have begun to call "hysteresis" -- a fancy term for the notion that...