Word: gramm
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...same way that patriotism is called the last refuge of scoundrels. The obscure word, which looks like a refugee from a crossword puzzle, means seizure, and that is what happened last week. President Bush directed all federal agencies to meet the budget-deficit- reduction targets specified by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law by imposing $16.1 billion in across-the-board spending cuts. Worthy domestic-spending programs such as subsidized housing were cut the same 5.3% as pork-barrel projects like the Agricultural Extension Service. Under sequestration, the Defense Department faces a 4.3% chop, with important items like military readiness facing...
...battle for fiscal discipline quickly degenerated into a familiar attempt to shift the blame for failure -- not only between parties and branches of Government but also onto the Gramm-Rudman procedure itself...
Since it has produced a meat-cleaver approach to budget cutting, the Gramm- Rudman mechanism has itself become a target. Senator Ernest Hollings, one of the authors of the legislation, announced last week that he was ready for a "divorce" from the act. During Senate hearings on reforming the budget process, Budget Committee chairman Jim Sasser of Tennessee said, "Gramm- Rudman is teetering on the verge of becoming more a part of the problem than a part of the solution." Sasser says the law has the Government keeping two sets of books: one devised to meet Gramm-Rudman, "which...
...least one original sponsor still defends his offspring. Says Texas Republican Senator Phil Gramm: "It's bashing time for Gramm-Rudman, but our biggest critics are those who weren't for it to begin with. Without the law, our federal deficit would have been larger than...
...mechanistic approach like Gramm-Rudman is not the real solution to the budget deficit. Says Speaker Foley: "No amount of tinkering with the legislative process can substitute for a commitment to get spending under control. Some people look to procedural changes to get us out of our current mess. Will is what's required." There are no shortcuts on the road back to fiscal responsibility and economic health...