Word: loath
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...which begins in October. The President has proposed a spending "freeze" that will in fact reduce funds for some programs for the poor, such as food stamps and child nutrition, by about 8%, while boosting the defense budget by 14%. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are loath to make further cuts in programs for the poor. Moreover, there is considerable bipartisan support for a public works jobs program to stimulate employment. Predicted Republican Congressman Silvio Conte of Massachusetts: "There will be a hell of a shift from defense to social programs, no doubt about...
Even some of the President's aides consider the proposal for stand-by tax increases to be a "Rube Goldberg" scheme that the legislature will reject. The tax-writing committees of Congress are loath to let the President specify the conditions under which levies should be raised. Republicans Robert Dole of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Barber Conable of New York, a tax expert in the House, put their opposition on the record last week. Many Congressmen and Senators also feel that a plan to raise taxes only if certain conditions prevail is inadequate. They will...
...week rejected a taunting suggestion from Kansas Republican Senator Robert Dole, another commission member, that Reagan is "frightened to death about Social Security." Still, Reagan declared, "We are waiting for the commission to come back and tell us, could they agree on a plan." O'Neill, who is loath to consider a limit on benefits, nonetheless has said that he will go along with one if the commission's Democrats* endorse it. But he too takes the position that the commission must issue recommendations...
Many Democrats are equally loath to limit benefit increases. They are under pressure from the elderly, who have an exaggerated fear that if their pension checks do not keep pace with inflation they will be reduced to eating cat food. Members of the Gray Panthers, who demonstrated outside the meeting, chanted, "No ifs, no ands, no buts, no cost-of-living cuts." In fact, there is evidence that putting a cap on benefits would be justified. Tying Social Security payments to inflation amounts to a huge transfer of wealth from the young, whose earnings are not similarly protected...
...authorities this improved "American" has produced only headaches. Local police are often loath to arrest growers, especially when communities are dependent on pot income. Some even tip off planters to impending law-enforcement raids. In many states, the penalties meted out for growing grass often amount to little more than a wrist slap anyway. Even with stiffer sentencing, enforcement would remain difficult. Growers have become adept at hiding pot patches from airborne police. One farmer in Kentucky is growing plants on flatbeds that he can wheel into the barn at the first buzz of a light plane. Other growers protect...