Deficit Reduction

The problems facing our government today have never been more serious, the issues never more complicated, the situation never more dangerous, and the solutions never simpler. The critical issue is neither Republican nor Democratic but a problem for all Americans. The "Gang of Six" after months of working together have produced a comprehensive plan to address the deficit. It may not be perfect, but it is a good starting point. Mr. President, Baltimore just laid to rest its best ever mayor with a flourish.

In President Barack Obama's running argument with the Republicans in Congress over who's responsible for the legislative stalemate on Capitol Hill, he suffers self-inflicted wounds by continuing to run up the same white flag that undermined his own efforts in his first term. He did it again in his embarrassing cave-in to Congress' makeshift response to the air traffic controllers' furloughs that briefly stalled travel, acquiescing in shifting $253 million in Federal Aviation Administration funds to keep them on the job. In so doing, he invited allegations of crumbling to legislators more concerned about getting to and from their districts than solving the fiscal sequester nightmare paralyzing the government.

Contrary to Jay Hancock 's recent assertions about shared sacrifice and the federal deficit ("Fixing America needs contributions from everybody," Oct. 2), we do not oppose changes to Medicare to make it solvent, for two reasons. First, Medicare is not insolvent; its trust fund is solvent through 2024. Second, we recognize the value of reasoned proposals, such as the delivery system reforms included in the Affordable Care Act, that address the larger problem driving Medicare spending growth: rising costs across the entire health care sector.

President Barack Obama's Fiscal Year 2014 budget is a concrete plan to create jobs and cut the deficit. We do not need to choose between these two priorities. The president's balanced, compromise plan proves we can do both. The guiding principle behind the president's plan is reigniting America's engine of economic growth: a rising, thriving middle class. The plan is focused on addressing three fundamental questions: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do the jobs of the 21st century?

I completely agree with Professor Peter Morici's assessment ( "Republicans have a chance to lead on the budget: will they?" April 6) that neither political party is serious about tackling the deficit. The main driver of these budget shortfalls are health care costs. The Democrats abdicated responsibility to completely transform the system when passing the Affordable Care Act. While Rep. Paul Ryan does make significant cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, which will save the federal government trillions, his "Path to Prosperity" does not eliminate the perverse incentives that drive medical inflation.

The budget deficit has been the spectral issue of thi campaign, a threatening presence only rarely glimpsed.Yet it is the major long-term problem facing the economy. If putting America back to work is the nation's first priority this election year, then keeping it there must be its second. Almost everyone agrees the deficit must be reduced if the United States is ever to prosper again.Ross Perot, the independent candidate who has made deficit-reduction the focus of his underdog campaign, likens the deficit to the crazy aunt in the basement who everyone knows is there but no one wants to talk about.

A whole lot of Democrats and independents were probably delighted to hear President Barack Obama demonstrate a little more resolve in the deficit reduction debate today. In unveiling his $3 billion proposal to reduce federal debt over the next decade through both spending cuts and tax increases, the president also outlined some core principles — among them that he won't support any measure that requires the middle class and poor to do all the sacrificing in order to preserve tax loopholes and other advantages for the rich.

Deficit reduction is an important national priority, vital to our long-term economic opportunity and security. But just because it's important doesn't mean that it can be undertaken without regard to our national values. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives left values on the sideline this week when it moved forward with a shocking proposal to cut food assistance for our nation's hungry by over $33 billion. That it was done in the name of deficit reduction does not excuse the fact that cuts to anti-hunger programs at a time when need has never been greater are both reckless and short-sighted.

THE Concord Coalition recently released its "Zero Deficit Plan," which proposes to eliminate the federal budget deficit by the year 2000. The plan's sponsors, former Democratic senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts and Republican Warren Rudman New Hampshire, also unveiled a "Debt Clock," mounted on a trailer, to be hauled around the country for photo-ops to underscore the peril of the rising national debt.The coalition was intended to be a grassroots group, sounding a national alarm in the spirit of Paul Revere ("The deficit is here!"

Boston -- Building the $4 trillion federal debt was a bipartisan effort. Controlling it will be, too.An innovative citizens' effort to add political muscle to the issue is off to a surprisingly strong start, with surprising supporters and opponents from both parties. Calling itself ''Lead . . . or Leave,'' the movement is asking candidates for federal office to pledge that they will not seek re-election after four years unless the annual deficit is cut in half by that time.Seven members of Congress and many more challengers signed up in the first week after the drive was announced formally in Washington with the support of retiring Sen. Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire, a Republican, and former Sen. Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts, a Democrat.

Local government is truly where the rubber meets the road. As Baltimore County executive, I proudly oversaw capital projects ranging from the restoration of the Randallstown Library after a fire to the expansion of Cromwell Valley Park. We rebuilt Essex Elementary School and constructed a new interchange at I-795 and Dolfield Road in Owings Mills. We were able to pay for these and dozens of other projects - which improved the everyday lives of thousands of people - with the help of tax-exempt municipal bonds.

Sen. Ben Cardin accurately described the danger of the sequester's "meat-ax approach" to debt reduction and the fatigue of the American people with budget showdowns that do little more than kick the can down the road. ("No to sequestration," Feb. 20). But in the final analysis, Senator Cardin's article is more of the same - one politician's vision, among many others, of what a fair and comprehensive deficit reduction plan should be. What is missing is a commitment to a specific plan of revenue increases and spending cuts.

The first State of the Union address of President Barack Obama's second term offered a list of new initiatives if not new ideas. Mr. Obama focused on improving the economic lot of the middle class, reforming the nation's immigration system, addressing climate change and finding a balanced approach to solving our budget problems. Aside from gun control - an issue thrust on the president's agenda by the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre - and a new, ominous nuclear test in North Korea, all of the themes from the speech could have had a home in any of President Obama's previous State of the Union addresses.

Now that Congress has passed a bill to avoid the fiscal cliff, we see what Democrats mean by "a balanced approach" to deficit reduction ("House passes 'cliff' bill,'" Jan. 2). The measure includes $41 in tax hikes for every $1 in spending reductions. We also can clearly see how the media feels about this, since it was not mentioned on any of the network news shows. This seems a lot more unbalanced than balanced to me. David Posner Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

A drive through Baltimore reveals signs of economic optimism as well as severe poverty. If the economy is to fully recover from the worst recession in decades, Democrats and Republicans must accept that sacrifices are necessary from both sides ("GOP cancels vote on Plan B," Dec. 21). Unfortunately, the GOP is inexplicably proposing that the poorest and neediest Americans sustain severe cuts to vital services, while the highest income earners are allowed to benefit from continued Bush-era tax cuts.

As the fiscal cliff looms, two of Maryland's most influential congressmen have a message for those looking to the federal workforce for more savings: Look somewhere else. "Federal workers have already been asked to sacrifice as part of the budget cuts that have already taken place," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House budget committee, told reporters last week. "Now is the time to ask others to help share responsibility for reducing our deficit. " Van Hollen spoke days after Rep. Steny Hoyer wrote an op-ed urging negotiators: "Don't Throw Feds Over 'Cliff.'" "Over the past two years, federal employees have repeatedly faced threats of a government shutdown that would stop their paychecks with virtually no notice," Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, wrote in Federal Times.

WASHINGTON -- More than 150 members of Congress will gather in an ornate room on Capitol Hill this morning to begin cutting a deal Democratic leaders warn is vital to their party, their president and the nation.Despite the loftiness of the claim, for much of the next three weeks the lawmakers' efforts to craft a compromise on President Clinton's budget package are expected to unfold with all the grace and statesmanship of mud wrestling.Already, the politically spooked Congress appears inclined to reconcile its aversion to tax increases and its desire for more spending by cheating on Mr. Clinton's $500 billion deficit reduction target.

I wish President Barack Obama would explain to the nation that the federal budget deficit isn't the nation's major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn't be our major goal. Our biggest problem is lack of good jobs and sufficient growth. And our goal must be to revive both. Deficit reduction leads us in the opposite direction -- away from jobs and growth. The reason the "fiscal cliff" is dangerous (and it's not really a "cliff" but more like a hill, because we won't fall off it immediately on Jan. 1)

If the Bowles-Simpson commission deficit reduction plan is dead, somebody evidently forgot to tell Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Their proposal to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade fell one vote short of the majority needed to force congressional action, and President Barack Obama, though saying nice things about the effort, didn't pick up the plan and sell it to the American people. But now, nearly two years later and on the eve of a presidential election, the framework Messrs.