Discretionary Spending

If experienced business people instead of lawyers were running the Maryland General Assembly, it would be a no-brainer that you don't over-saturate a limited market that depends on discretionary spending from family funds. Of course, this seems to be too difficult for the lawyers in the legislature to grasp. F. Cordell

If experienced business people instead of lawyers were running the Maryland General Assembly, it would be a no-brainer that you don't over-saturate a limited market that depends on discretionary spending from family funds. Of course, this seems to be too difficult for the lawyers in the legislature to grasp. F. Cordell

On April 17, I will be protesting war taxes at Baltimore's main post office. I realize that taxes fund many good programs - education, environment and diplomacy. But sadly when 57 percent of the federal budget goes to the Pentagon, the government's priorities are out of touch with the pressing problems facing its citizens. Instead of investing in a clean energy future and prioritizing human and environmental needs, we are somehow still caught in the outdated and dangerous thinking of the past.

On April 17, I will be protesting war taxes at Baltimore's main post office. I realize that taxes fund many good programs - education, environment and diplomacy. But sadly when 57 percent of the federal budget goes to the Pentagon, the government's priorities are out of touch with the pressing problems facing its citizens. Instead of investing in a clean energy future and prioritizing human and environmental needs, we are somehow still caught in the outdated and dangerous thinking of the past.

WASHINGTON - The head of Congress' auditing arm warned yesterday that "imprudent and unsustainable" federal borrowing is driving the nation toward a fiscal crisis. The comments by David M. Walker, head of the General Accounting Office, come as a number of conservatives have begun to criticize the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress for failing to hold the line on spending. Both branches of government are blinded by political "nearsightedness and tunnel vision" and are failing to see that government borrowing is out of control, Walker said at a breakfast meeting with reporters.

Americans often aren't good at making choices between options for spending their money. There's stuff they must have, stuff they need, and stuff they want. If money isn't there for all of the above, they just take out the credit card. The federal government in recent years has reflected that impulse in spades, which explains both the $250 billion annual budget deficit and the $8.6 trillion national debt. Newly in charge House Democrats took two steps last week toward reversing this trend.

WASHINGTON -- When Giovanni Gio-litti, prime minister in many perishable and forgettable Italian governments between 1892 and 1921, was asked if it was difficult to govern Italy, he replied, ''Not at all, but it's useless.''Americans who feel that way about the governance of their country can point to the contours of the balanced-budget agreement, which is said to reflect healthy and historic ''compromise.''The president proposed holding domestic spending to essentially its current portion of GDP, continuing the decline of defense spending as a portion of GDP, and allowing entitlement spending to continue to grow relative to discretionary spending.

WASHINGTON - The House Budget Committee approved yesterday a $2.4 trillion budget for the 2005 fiscal year and separate legislation that would impose caps on spending, in each case voting along party lines - 24 Republicans in favor and 19 Democrats opposed. The budget bill is scheduled for consideration by the full House on Wednesday. The panel's actions set the stage for what will probably be contentious negotiations between the House and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans, to reconcile differences in their 2005 budget bills.

WASHINGTON - President Bush came to office saying he was a fiscal conservative, but federal spending has skyrocketed on his watch. And it's not just the Pentagon that's getting more federal dollars. Overall spending is up by at least 16 percent since he took office, far more than the 2 percent average annual inflation rate over the same period. According to one recent analysis, the government spends $20,000 a year for every household in America, the most since World War II. In the meantime, the $236 billion federal surplus that Bush inherited in January 2001 has turned into a $400 billion-plus deficit.

Washington.--The government is not destined to become svelte, but the budget the president submitted this week -- the first real Democratic budget in 13 years, which is half a generation -- illustrates a paradox that gives cold comfort to conservatives: The largest achievement of modern liberalism, the welfare state, is now the largest impediment to the liberal aspiration for energetic government.Candidate Clinton vowed that an end of ''gridlock'' between Congress and the executive branch would enable Democrats to ''reverse Reaganism.

Remember the promises of fiscal discipline on which the latest Congress was elected? Well, lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem to have forgotten - and they're willing to sacrifice the well-being of our troops if they don't get to indulge their free-spending ways. Congress has larded President Bush's defense supplemental bill with $21 billion in unrelated add-ons. This wish list, representing a who's who of special interests, brings the total cost of the bill to $124 billion. The result may be the most expensive "emergency" legislation in American history.

Americans often aren't good at making choices between options for spending their money. There's stuff they must have, stuff they need, and stuff they want. If money isn't there for all of the above, they just take out the credit card. The federal government in recent years has reflected that impulse in spades, which explains both the $250 billion annual budget deficit and the $8.6 trillion national debt. Newly in charge House Democrats took two steps last week toward reversing this trend.

WASHINGTON - The House Budget Committee approved yesterday a $2.4 trillion budget for the 2005 fiscal year and separate legislation that would impose caps on spending, in each case voting along party lines - 24 Republicans in favor and 19 Democrats opposed. The budget bill is scheduled for consideration by the full House on Wednesday. The panel's actions set the stage for what will probably be contentious negotiations between the House and the Senate, both controlled by Republicans, to reconcile differences in their 2005 budget bills.

WASHINGTON - The head of Congress' auditing arm warned yesterday that "imprudent and unsustainable" federal borrowing is driving the nation toward a fiscal crisis. The comments by David M. Walker, head of the General Accounting Office, come as a number of conservatives have begun to criticize the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress for failing to hold the line on spending. Both branches of government are blinded by political "nearsightedness and tunnel vision" and are failing to see that government borrowing is out of control, Walker said at a breakfast meeting with reporters.

WASHINGTON - President Bush came to office saying he was a fiscal conservative, but federal spending has skyrocketed on his watch. And it's not just the Pentagon that's getting more federal dollars. Overall spending is up by at least 16 percent since he took office, far more than the 2 percent average annual inflation rate over the same period. According to one recent analysis, the government spends $20,000 a year for every household in America, the most since World War II. In the meantime, the $236 billion federal surplus that Bush inherited in January 2001 has turned into a $400 billion-plus deficit.

Invigorating our economy is top priority The Sun's editorial "Bush's binge" (Sept. 26) erroneously claims that "next year's deficit will grow by $500 billion." But the Bush administration's review released in July estimates the budget deficit will grow only $20 billion next year (the increase in the deficit for fiscal 2004 over the deficit in fiscal 2003). And under the administration's policies, the deficit will be cut in half over the following two years. And The Sun's claim that "over the next six years ... total federal debt relative to the size of the economy is expected to approach levels not seen in 50 years, and debt interest likely will exceed the costs of all discretionary domestic programs (education, law enforcement, etc.)"

GOP's budget games and tax cuts imperil nation's fiscal futureThe recently passed $792 billion tax cut bill is more than just an irresponsible act that, if signed by President Clinton, would undoubtedly return us to the days of soaring deficits and high interest rates.The tax bill is like a runaway train with the accelerator pushed all the way down. By failing to make responsible adjustments in discretionary spending caps, it is leading toward an economic train wreck.In 1997, as part of the balanced budget bill, Congress voted that discretionary spending caps would be used to ensure responsible spending.

A front-page graphic in yesterday's Sun should have specified that it is aid to the poor for utility bills that would be cut from $2.1 billion to $791 million next year under President Clinton's proposed budget.The Sun regrets the errors.WASHINGTON -- President Clinton sent Congress a $1.52 trillion budget yesterday that proposes hundreds of spending cuts but also rearranges a host of federal spending priorities that he believes invest in the future of the nation's children and work ++ force.

CHICAGO -- In 1989, a real estate developer named Seymour Durst unveiled the National Debt Clock in New York City to record the steady and staggering increase of the national debt. Two years ago, the clock was turned off because, with the government running surpluses, the debt was shrinking. But last week, the clock started up again -- and it will be running for some time. The federal budget deficit is back. After a brief, glorious era of surpluses, the government expects to go $165 billion into the red this year.

GOP's budget games and tax cuts imperil nation's fiscal futureThe recently passed $792 billion tax cut bill is more than just an irresponsible act that, if signed by President Clinton, would undoubtedly return us to the days of soaring deficits and high interest rates.The tax bill is like a runaway train with the accelerator pushed all the way down. By failing to make responsible adjustments in discretionary spending caps, it is leading toward an economic train wreck.In 1997, as part of the balanced budget bill, Congress voted that discretionary spending caps would be used to ensure responsible spending.