Defense Spending

One of Maryland's top industries — defense and war — seems at risk from its own recession. Designated U.S. combat forces are due to be out of Iraq by the end of the month. Political support is waning for the war in Afghanistan, which looks as if it will be wound down in a year or two. A key advisory group told the Defense Department last month that it needs to shed more than 100,000 civilian jobs. The last time something like this happened, this state plunged into a five-year slump.

Last week, Congress approved another stopgap measure to keep the government running while Republicans and Democrats fight about how much should be cut during the current fiscal year, presaging an even tougher fight about the budget for fiscal 2012. The divided votes in the House and the Senate show that not only can't the two parties agree on a spending plan but that there's significant division within the Republican and Democratic ranks about what to do. Some Republicans aligned with the tea party voted against the budget continuation because it cuts too little, and some Democrats voted no because it cuts too much.

WASHINGTON -- This presidential season is defined by a double paradox: The voters' conservatism is making them resistant to Bob Dole's message and tolerant of Bill Clinton's performance.Conservatives have told the country that the federal government is less useful than it thinks. Convinced, the country has concluded that stewardship of the government is not nearly as important as it was during the Cold War and when the government had confidence in, and money for, grand domestic designs.This diffidence of the electorate makes it difficult for Senator Dole to communicate a sense of urgency, or even get the electorate's attention.

Marylanders from nearly every walk of life could be affected by across-the-board budget cuts starting in 2013 as a result of the congressional supercommittee's failure to reach an agreement to trim the nation's spiraling budget deficits. After months of secret talks, the 12-member panel formally pulled the plug Monday on its mission to identify $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts over 10 years. Unless changed by Congress, the outcome will cause automatic reductions that would be particularly painful for Maryland, where the federal government spent $96 billion last year.

WASHINGTON - President Bush proposed a $2.13 trillion budget yesterday that calls for vast increases in military and homeland defense spending, partly offset by cuts in such areas as job training, road construction and environmental protection. The budget he sent to Congress reflects how profoundly the president believes the nation must adjust to counter the threat of terrorism and fight off a recession. Bush proposed the largest increase in defense spending since the early years of the Reagan administration.

WASHINGTON -- Agreements to boost defense spending and to battle Internet pornography allowed Republican leaders and the White House to forge a $500 billion budget deal yesterday, handing President Clinton a political victory and Republicans some legislative achievements to show voters.Democrats were delighted with the accord, which gave them what they wanted on education, farm relief and contraceptive issues, while providing plenty of fodder to take on the campaign trail before the Nov. 3 congressional elections.

While President Barack Obama described plans Thursday to make the U.S. military "leaner," officials in Maryland said the focus of installations and defense contractors here on intelligence, cyberwarfare, research and development is likely to protect the state from the deep cuts feared elsewhere. The defense strategy the president unveiled calls for bolstering the U.S. military presence in the Asian-Pacific region and increasing investment in NATO and other partnerships as the United States pulls troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

THERE WAS A TIME, not too long ago, when Democrats in this country were routinely labeled members of the "tax and spend" party, and sometimes rightly so. It was not generally meant as a compliment. President Bush, in his proposed budget for fiscal 2003, has done the Democratic Party one better: not taxing, still spending. On Monday the president unveiled a $2.13 trillion budget plan that calls for a 14 percent increase in defense spending, an $80 billion deficit in the first year alone and hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts.

Washington. -- Like the farmers who tilled fields at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, Bush campaigners are confident that natural forces favor them. Rich Bond, GOP chairman, interviewed on television with a beach behind him, yawned about Bill Clinton's surge. Noting that four years ago Michael Dukakis led George Bush 51 percent to 34 percent, Mr. Bond said: ''You see behind me high tide. Time passes, gravity occurs, the tide goes out and low tide is on the way for Bill Clinton.''But Mr. Clinton is not Mr. Dukakis, who was passive when attacked.

There's a tendency among some to shorthand the ongoing federal budget debate as between Republicans who want to reduce government spending and Democrats who don't. This isn't really the case, as recent actions in the House have demonstrated. On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee took a close look at President Barack Obama's proposed $525.4 billion defense spending plan and decided that simply wasn't enough. The GOP-controlled committee voted to authorize nearly $4 billion more than what the Pentagon had requested for 2013.