Word: surplus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...peddling an idea first raised by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan--whose seal of approval is to economic policy what Good Housekeeping's is to home appliances--the centrist bloc instantly seized the fiscal high ground. Bush insists that the surplus, projected to be $5.6 trillion over the next decade, can easily accommodate his $1.6 trillion tax cut. But while government number crunchers are fairly accurate when predicting revenues over the next year or two, they are notoriously unreliable six or more years down the line, when more than two-thirds of the Bush cuts would take effect...
Peter Piot, Director of UNAIDS, has said that, "the great moral test of our time is how the rich countries respond to the AIDS crisis." As America decides how to spend a $5.4-trillion projected surplus, it must bear in mind that enormous good can be done for less than $10 billion. Last year, the United States contributed about $350 million to fighting global AIDS; this year, it should multiply that amount several times. Stone Professor of International Trade Jeffrey D. Sachs '76 and others have estimated that dramatic gains in fighting AIDS in Africa can be had for only...
...Rumsfeld conducts his review of the Pentagon, a large chunk will surely pay for modernizing the military and developing a national missile defense. Bush says there will be plenty left to cover natural disasters like earthquakes and economic disasters like the budget gaps that will open up if the surplus falls short of projections...
...Bush, it sounds like a big fat loophole. A lame economy isn't the only way the surplus projections can go south - an increase in government spending would do the trick just as well. And when Bush hears a Democrat talk about making sure there's money for "necessary programs" in 2005, he figures he knows what they mean: Hello spending...
...Remember, those surplus projections come with a diet too. The CBO's rosy forecasts lowballed economic growth and productivity enough to put them on pretty firm ground. What trigger proponents are saying is that the third component of the projections - growth in discretionary spending - was hopelessly optimistic, and they can't be trusted to stick...