Word: surpluses
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...this time around, both sides have promised not to touch the Social Security surplus, which will run about $147 billion next year. Republican leaders don't want to take the blame for scooping out an extra $14 billion just to keep the government running--especially after conservatives got so angry with them when they did it in 1998. "This year, if spending means so much to him, the President will have to justify dipping into the Social Security trust fund," says John Czwartacki, spokesman for Senate majority leader Trent Lott...
...most interesting thing about the phantom surplus is that by every indication, voters don't think it really exists either. But that has not prevented politicians on both sides from trying to woo them with proposals that Washington can't pay for. Republicans fanned out during their August recess to try to rally public support for their tax cuts--Please, let us give you more money!--but the polls showed a public unmoved. Voters said they would rather use the money, if it exists, to pay down the $5.6 trillion national debt. "People are genuinely fiscally conservative in this country...
None of the options are pretty. Lawmakers will probably pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running at least past the presidential primaries and hope that some extra money falls from the skies by next January, after economists have recalculated the surplus. And in the meantime, through the messy magic of democracy, the public actually gets what it wants: the President has to wait for new spending; the Republicans have to put off their tax cuts; and as the months roll by, any surplus that actually materializes goes into paying down the debt. It's enough to make...
...that the budget deficit has morphed into a surplus, the Treasury's Bureau of Public Debt is in sore need of a new mission. Sure, the U.S. still has $5.6 trillion in obligations to manage. That'll keep it busy for a while. But things are different now that we're no longer spending more than we make. For one thing, the once vitally important U.S. savings-bond program seems ripe for attrition. Savings bonds finance only 4% of the national debt, down from more than 20% in their heyday, and officials are in deep discussion about how to keep...
...elder-care equation. Finding and retaining good caregivers is difficult now, and as the need grows, where are the workers to come from? If we want good care for our parents (and ourselves soon enough), we're going to have to pay for it. Instead of blowing the budget surplus on a big tax cut, we should find ways to invest in those who care for our vulnerable elders. Providing decent pay, training and benefits would be a start. JUDITH B. CLINCO, R.N., B.S. Catalina In-Home Services Inc. Tucson, Ariz...