Federal Budget

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investing in a clean energy future and prioritizing human and environmental needs, we are somehow still caught in the outdated and dangerous thinking of the past.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investing in a clean energy future and prioritizing human and environmental needs, we are somehow still caught in the outdated and dangerous thinking of the past.

I guarantee you that the federal budget is not "a boon" to Maryland ("Obama budget a plus for Md.," Feb. 2). This money doesn't fall from the sky. This is our tax money coming back to us in reduced form or is borrowed money; either way the middle class gets whacked. Thomas F. McDonough, Towson Send your comments to talkback@baltimoresun.com.

Annual compensation dropped by nearly half last year for Randall M. Griffin, who retired last month as chief executive of Corporate Office Properties Trust. Griffin earned $3.04 million in 2011, down from $6.05 million in 2010, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. Griffin, who retired after nearly 14 years with the Columbia-based office developer, earned a base salary in each of the past two years of $645,000. But because the company failed to meet performance goals, Griffin did not receive an annual cash incentive award or equity awards based on share price, according to last week's filing.

It is imperative that people of faith speak up in support of a federal budget process that is true to the best moral traditions of our country. The federal budget is a document that reflects the values that we hold to be most important. Continuation of funding for programs that strengthen and enrich lives, support the most vulnerable among us, and serve the common good should be the foundation for decisions made in prioritizing budget choices. These are challenging financial times for our nation as Congress makes the difficult choices necessary to balance the concerns for reduction of a mounting debt with the financial commitment that a moral country must make to preserve the dignity and welfare of all people served by that government.

The federal fiscal year 2011 began on October 1, 2010. Congress has yet to pass a budget for that year, and political posturing has led to financial brinksmanship. Let's challenge Congress to do the responsible thing: demand that a budget be enacted before the fiscal year starts or else!! Or else what? Or else the government really shuts down: no air traffic controllers, no Social Security payments, no federally insured banking, no food inspections, no security for the White House or Capitol, and especially no pay or perks for Congress.

Nearly 5,000 Howard County residents benefited from energy assistance funds last year, but because federal funding is expected to drop, a nonprofit group says it will struggle to provide help. "The question is, how significant is the cut going to be and when is that decision going to be made?" said Bita Dayhoff, president of the Community Action Council of Howard County, who spoke before members of the county's Annapolis delegation Wednesday at the Association of Community Services meeting in Columbia.

In the last week, I've interviewed seven budget and tax analysts on my radio show. Near the end of each interview, I've asked, in so many words, whether the runaway federal budgets this year and next could, in their opinion, be brought under control before we race off the cliff and into a fiscal void. The consensus is that there are steps that could at least begin to do the job, but that political considerations make it unlikely. Tax policy analyst Daniel Mitchell of the Cato Institute did say, "If you're planning to live just another year or two, things look OK. " The good news, Mr. Mitchell said, is that the spending side of the new Obama budget unveiled the other day doesn't propose any big new initiatives to expand the burden of government.

Selected leaks of the Clinton budget project a misleading picture of extreme austerity, with 115 federal programs to be eliminated, another 185 to be cut and Uncle Sam's payroll to be reduced by 118,000 persons within the next 20 months.When the official numbers are released today the full dimensions of the president's offsetting "investment agenda" will be known. Then it will be seen that the crunch comes not so much from last year's deficit reduction initiative as from the administration's determination to establish a different set of priorities for domestic spending.

Call it the Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole says there will be no Republican compromise on the federal budget as Congress gets serious about a fiscal 1996 plan this month. President Clinton says he will be the voice of sweet reason. But lay aside what this year's budget will mean for long-term economic health. Lay aside even next year's presidential election. What happens if, as many believe, the posturing by both sides leads to a deadlock that temporarily shuts the federal government down?

It is imperative that people of faith speak up in support of a federal budget process that is true to the best moral traditions of our country. The federal budget is a document that reflects the values that we hold to be most important. Continuation of funding for programs that strengthen and enrich lives, support the most vulnerable among us, and serve the common good should be the foundation for decisions made in prioritizing budget choices. These are challenging financial times for our nation as Congress makes the difficult choices necessary to balance the concerns for reduction of a mounting debt with the financial commitment that a moral country must make to preserve the dignity and welfare of all people served by that government.

Your editorial on Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal demonstrates why it will be so difficult to restore fiscal discipline to the federal budget ("Ryan's song and dance," March 21). Unfortunately, you have picked the wrong culprit. While criticizing Representative Ryan in his effort to balance the budget, The Sun glosses over President Obama's utter failure to make any serious effort at reducing government spending. You mention the president's "bipartisan deficit commission" but conveniently leave out the fact that the president has refused to implement any of its recommendations.

New federal employees would contribute more than triple the amount paid by current government workers for their retirement under an agreement reached in Congress, according to two Maryland lawmakers who helped craft the deal to extend a payroll tax break and unemployment benefits. The provision, which faced immediate pushback from public employee unions, would contribute $15 billion to the $140 billion cost over the next decade by requiring civilian employees hired after this year to chip in 3.1 percent of their pay to their retirement instead of the current 0.8 percent.

Columbia-based office developer Corporate Office Properties Trust, or COPT, posted an $87.2 million loss in the fourth quarter, the company reported Thursday, blaming a weak economic recovery and uncertainty over federal budget cuts. The net loss for the three months ended Dec. 31 compared with a profit of $16.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. "The on-going difficult operating environment, caused by the weak economic recovery and uncertainty surrounding federal budget cuts made 2011 a challenging year for COPT," Randall M. Griffin, chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Nearly 5,000 Howard County residents benefited from energy assistance funds last year, but because federal funding is expected to drop, a nonprofit group says it will struggle to provide help. "The question is, how significant is the cut going to be and when is that decision going to be made?" said Bita Dayhoff, president of the Community Action Council of Howard County, who spoke before members of the county's Annapolis delegation Wednesday at the Association of Community Services meeting in Columbia.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and other members of the congressional "supercommittee" created by this summer's federal deficit ceiling law are charged with making a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit. That's a daunting task. But as new Census Bureau data shows, kids in Mr. Van Hollen's 8th District and in Maryland as a whole face an even more daunting one: staying afloat as more and more of them sink into poverty. First Focus, a national bipartisan children's advocacy organization, has crunched the numbers, and the Census figures show that an alarming 16,000 children in Mr. Van Hollen's district lived in poverty in 2010.

If rhetoric were reality, the news from Washington last week would suggest that it's no longer a question of whether the federal budget will be balanced, but when. President Clinton, who has resisted Republican calls for deep spending cuts for Medicare, Medicaid and federal agencies, did something Tuesday he has never done before. He offered a plan to balance the budget by a specific date, in this case, 2005.That's three years later than the Republicans' target. But Washington watchers see significance -- and concessions -- in Mr. Clinton's plan.

Maryland's economy is heavily dependent on government spending, and the increasing pressure in Washington to rein in the nation's deficits is definitely cause for worry. According to a new report from the Census Bureau, Maryland's share of federal spending effectively remained flat between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2010, posting so small a gain that it failed even to keep up with the modest rate of inflation. That's bad news, but it's hardly cause for panic. Maryland took in $96 billion in total federal payments in 2009.

When federal funds to help care for those with HIV/AIDS were delayed by a month or so by the budget fight in Congress this spring, the effects in Baltimore were severe. A Movable Feast cut food aid in half for most of the AIDS patients it served, and eliminated it entirely for their caretakers and children. The Moore Clinic for HIV Care at Johns Hopkins cut back housing grants and aid to help patients deal with diabetes and other health problems. Some 81 care organizations in Maryland have been affected by the backlog in payments caused by the bickering in Congress, and although they should be getting their full share of the state's $61 million in Ryan White Care Act funding within the next few weeks, real people have suffered in the meantime.