Domestic Spending

WASHINGTON - Always a partisan document, the federal budget took on an even more partisan feel yesterday as the House passed a $2.41 trillion spending blueprint for next year that Democrats said is fiscally irresponsible. Republicans, who have traditionally eschewed deficits - now expected to surpass $521 billion - mostly put their concerns aside to back President Bush's priorities: tax cuts, funding for the war in Iraq, and tighter domestic spending. But the House curbed the tax cuts a bit and speeded up Bush's goal of cutting the budget in half in five years.

These are difficult times for our economy, and Americans want Congress to act now to develop a credible budget plan that will ensure our nation's future growth and prosperity. It's not an easy task, but it is one around which all of us — Democrats, Republicans, independents — must come together as a nation if we are going to deal with our budget deficit. Recently, I gave a speech on the U.S. Senate floor outlining what I believe it will take to get control of our deficit while also ensuring our economic recovery and future prosperity.

NOW FOR THE "Final Jeopardy" answer: This U.S. president has increased domestic spending faster than any other since World War II.Question: Who is Lyndon Johnson?Wrong: Although Johnson's famous "Great Society" programs dramatically increased the size and power of the federal government, domestic spending during his tenure grew, on average, a "mere" $17 billion per year.Who is Jimmy Carter?Wrong again: In constant dollars, Carter boosted domestic spending at a rate of $20 billion a year -- not enough to qualify him for top honors either.

In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government estimated today that health care consumed a record 17.3 percent of all spending in the U.S. economy last year - or about $2.5 trillion. This was the single largest one-year jump in health care spending as a share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government started keeping such records a half-century ago. And as soon as next year, more than half of the nation's total health care tab may fall to the government for the first time, according to an annual report by independent actuaries at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

WASHINGTON -- A congressional leader arranged an $8 million federal grant to his alma mater two weeks ago, but that small act may end up setting off spending cuts in a wide range of domestic programs.Representative Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, arranged the grant for Loyola University of Chicago as part of $4.5 billion legislation to cover U.S. military expenses in the Persian Gulf.The grant, which would go toward a $24 million Center for Commerce and Industrial Expansion at Loyola's business school, was one of several non-military items in the bill.

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.

IN EARLY July, President Clinton visited some of the poorest regions of the country and, to bipartisan acclaim, spoke eloquently of our obligations to America's most disadvantaged children. Now, with the U.S. economy performing at its peak, we have an unprecedented opportunity to back up our words with actions.As Congress begins making critical decisions on budget priorities for decades to come, there is no better time than now to demonstrate the depth of our commitment to America's children, especially the poorest among them.

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.

WASHINGTON -- Interest payments on the mushrooming national debt are growing so fast that this major outlay is almost eclipsing the amount Congress appropriates each year for all domestic programs, new government figures show.The government paid $194.5 billion in interest payments last year on its debt, just a shy less than the $195.4 billion spent on these domestic programs, which range from education aid and work training to low-income energy assistance, prison operations, housing subsidies, the customs service and space stations.

These are difficult times for our economy, and Americans want Congress to act now to develop a credible budget plan that will ensure our nation's future growth and prosperity. It's not an easy task, but it is one around which all of us — Democrats, Republicans, independents — must come together as a nation if we are going to deal with our budget deficit. Recently, I gave a speech on the U.S. Senate floor outlining what I believe it will take to get control of our deficit while also ensuring our economic recovery and future prosperity.

SHANGHAI, China - China announced yesterday a huge economic stimulus plan aimed at bolstering its weakening economy, a sweeping move that could also help fight the effects of the global slowdown. At a time when major infrastructure projects are being put off around the world, China said it would spend an estimated $586 billion - about 7 percent of its gross domestic product - over the next two years to construct railways, subways and airports, and to rebuild communities devastated by a May earthquake in the southwest.

WASHINGTON - Always a partisan document, the federal budget took on an even more partisan feel yesterday as the House passed a $2.41 trillion spending blueprint for next year that Democrats said is fiscally irresponsible. Republicans, who have traditionally eschewed deficits - now expected to surpass $521 billion - mostly put their concerns aside to back President Bush's priorities: tax cuts, funding for the war in Iraq, and tighter domestic spending. But the House curbed the tax cuts a bit and speeded up Bush's goal of cutting the budget in half in five years.

WASHINGTON - Facing a record budget deficit, Bush administration officials say they have drafted an election-year budget that will rein in the growth of domestic spending without alienating politically influential constituencies. They said the president's proposed budget for the 2005 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, would control the rising cost of housing vouchers for the poor, require some veterans to pay more for their health care, slow the growth in spending on biomedical research, and merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs.

PRESIDENT Bush's sweeping tax-cut plan still suffers from some basic flaws, even as the Senate nears the end of its work on the proposal. Whether a conference committee of House and Senate leaders ultimately approves the president's more generous tax cuts or the slightly trimmed-down measure thrashed out by Senate Finance Committee Democrats and Republicans, the scope of these tax cuts could do long-term harm. By returning such a huge sum of money to taxpayers over the next 10 years -- between $1.35 trillion and $1.5 trillion -- Washington would shrink the cash available for domestic spending.

ATLANTA - The move by House Republicans to bump the administration's repeal of the estate tax to 2011 shifts President Bush's tax-cut program from a mere political flimflam into outright fraud. The point of the dodge is to keep the Bush tax cut over 10 years within the $1.6 trillion limit the president set. (The real cost to the Treasury, for a variety of reasons including increased federal interest payments, would be between $2.2 trillion and $2.5 trillion, but that's another scam.) By booting the estate tax repeal ahead, beyond the 10-year line, the short-term costs of the tax cut are lowered from the $662 billion the Joint Tax Committee had estimated to $186 billion.

THERE was something for everyone in Bill Clinton's final budget of his presidency: new domestic spending, tax cuts and a determined effort to pay off the nation's debt. In his search for a place in history, Mr. Clinton tried to have it all in his $1.8 trillion budget. Politics is woven into the fabric of this budget. Many Clinton initiatives dovetail with Vice President Al Gore's campaign pledges, especially in education and health care. Republican leaders in Congress have dismissed these proposals.

WASHINGTON -- The House defeated a proposal yesterday to override President Bush's veto of the Democratic tax-cut bill, providing another humiliating setback for the Democratic leadership, which had promoted the legislation as a potential election-year campaign issue.Not only did Democratic leaders fail to muster the two-thirds majority needed for a veto override, but lawmakers actually defeated the proposal, 215-211. Some 52 Democrats joined 163 Republicans in opposing the override move.

President Bush's success in leading the coalition partners to victory in the Persian Gulf War has moved him out of Ronald Reagan's shadow. He has forever established himself as Mr. Reagan's equal, or even superior -- a tough guy who is not to be trifled with and whose lips mean exactly what they say when America's interests are challenged by a foreign foe.There is but one Reagan shadow left to expunge. It is domestic issues. Mr. Bush hates dealing with domestic affairs, but he must act on them, and quickly, to move from being a good to a great president.

IN EARLY July, President Clinton visited some of the poorest regions of the country and, to bipartisan acclaim, spoke eloquently of our obligations to America's most disadvantaged children. Now, with the U.S. economy performing at its peak, we have an unprecedented opportunity to back up our words with actions.As Congress begins making critical decisions on budget priorities for decades to come, there is no better time than now to demonstrate the depth of our commitment to America's children, especially the poorest among them.