Federal Deficit

Something old and something new characterize the concerns residents have about national issues, as measured by an annual survey of constituents by U.S. Representative Beverly B. Byron, D-6th.The federalbudget deficit again topped the list of concerns on constituents' minds, said Beau Wright, a Byron spokesman.The survey also generates comments on more recent issues, and with the rise of the savings and loan debacle during the past year, residents conveyed reluctance about allowing banks to enter the securities and insurance businesses.

For Rep. Chris Van Hollen, brokering a bipartisan deal to trim the federal deficit is about more than dodging draconian across-the-board cuts or protecting a fragile economic recovery. It's also about proving that a bitterly divided Congress can still get something done. As a member of the congressional "supercommittee" charged with slashing U.S. budget deficits by $1.2 trillion, the Montgomery County Democrat is again at the center of the most pressing question facing Washington: how to balance spending cuts, taxes and the increasingly partisan politics of Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush got some welcome news yesterday as the federal deficit for last fiscal year fell to $247.7 billion - a four-year low - helped by a nearly 12 percent jump in tax revenue. Bush said the numbers were more evidence that the economy is booming as he credited tax cuts that he wants to see extended. With less than a month before the midterm congressional elections, Bush seized on the news to reassure voters that the economy is in good shape, with more new jobs and investment leading to greater tax revenues.

Republican leaders in Congress have so far given a tepid reaction to President Barack Obama's jobs bill, a modest $447 billion mix of tax cuts and spending intended to spur hiring across the country. Washington has become such a hyper-partisan place of late that anything less than a categorical rejection of his proposal by the opposing party is seen as a positive. But let's make no mistake, the GOP response sounded suspiciously like the kind of "thanks for the offer and we'll take a look" that a lot of unemployed Americans have heard before.

Maryland got largely grim news yesterday from President Bush's budget plan, including a wide range of cuts in important programs and a slim pay raise for the several hundred thousand federal employees who live in the state. Maryland Democrats were quick to criticize the plan, focusing largely on Bush's proposal to make tax cuts permanent as the federal deficit grows. "He presses on," said Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes. "He's going to give these big tax cuts, and he's not going to fund a number of very important programs.

The outline of a proposal to drastically scale back the federal deficit unveiled Wednesday offers a real challenge to President Obama. The ambitious plan, which sends a whole herd of sacred cows to the slaughterhouse, is exactly the kind of thing he came to Washington promising to champion — a real solution to the nation's problems that have been perpetuated by partisan gamesmanship for years. This is something that can't be done without changing the culture of Washington. But the proposal is, just as significantly, a test for the tea party and its newly elected champions in Congress.

To hear it from federal budget watchers, your golden years are on the verge of tarnishing. Reacting to the combination of the largest U.S. population group nearing retirement and a hefty deficit, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Feb. 25 recommended cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits for future retirees. It wasn't a popular suggestion, but it spotlighted the problems of government overspending. The White House has said the deficit in fiscal 2004, which ends Sept. 30, will total $521 billion.

Governor Glen can do the right thing. He isn't running for re-election ever again.You provide exculpatory evidence for Clinton, and Starr will indict you! Got that? Now, let the fair trial proceed.It is entirely appropriate that the Chief Justice preside over this case in a robe designed for farcical operetta.There's no point ending the federal deficit if they don't reduce the debt first.Pub Date: 1/11/99

Man wielding knife robs convenience storeA man armed with a knife robbed a Keymar convenience store of an undisclosed amount of money about 5:15 a.m. Friday, state police reported.The store clerk, whom police did not identify, said a man walked into the High's store brandishing a knife and demanded the cash. The store is at the intersection of Routes 77 and 194 in a sparsely populated area of Carroll County.The robber took the money and fled, apparently on foot, the employee told police.The employee was working alone when the robbery occurred, police said.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy is the strongest it's been in several generations, thanks in part to an expansion that has relied on investment, exports and a commitment to reducing the federal deficit, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said yesterday."

Few states have as good a reason as Maryland to be nervous about cuts in federal spending. The U.S. government employs more than 280,000 Marylanders directly and many indirectly, thanks to the billions of dollars in federal contracts that businesses in the state have pulled in every year. Federal spending per person in Maryland outpaces that in all but three other states and the District of Columbia. As Congress and the White House battle over plans to attack the looming budget deficit, a Maryland banker has launched a nonprofit effort to help the state thrive in a future likely to see less cash from Uncle Sam. Blueprint Maryland's first move was to release an economic analysis by Baltimore's Sage Policy Group this week that says Maryland could lose nearly 150,000 jobs over the next 25 years if all the deficit-reduction recommendations from the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform are enacted.

While politicians in Washington refuse to compromise on raising the debt ceiling, small investors are worrying about what a stalemate might mean to their life savings. Financial planners say they are having discussions regularly with clients about the impasse in Congress over the vote to raise the amount the government can borrow so it can continue to pay all its bills. Clients fear that politicians won't reach a deal in time, causing the country to default on its obligations — and , economists say, wreaking havoc on the global economy.

Uncharacteristically, I want to begin this column with some good news on the economic front, though it will be brief: Across the country, state tax revenues are rising substantially, indicating there is a real recovery going on. For the spendthrift federal government, tax receipts rose by $110 billion, or 9.1 percent, in the first seven months of fiscal 2011. In telling us this, The Wall Street Journal says the bad news is that the federal deficit increased a record $871 billion, a $71 billion dollar bump, because spending went up $181 billion, or 6.4 percent.

In Tom Schaller's recent Op-Ed article ("Taxing the rich: good policy, good politics," April 6), he makes the case that the cure for our economic ills is more taxes on the rich. Tom argues that (1) increasing government spending stimulates the economy, (2) reducing income taxes retards economic growth, (3) the tax burden in the US too low, and (4) increasing taxes on the wealthy is justified because it's popular. Let's see, Obama and the governments of Greece, Ireland, and now Portugal have all spent trillions with little or no economic growth to show.

Federal finances are in shambles, and Americans should be amused if not disgusted by the explanations and solutions both political parties offer. President Barack Obama's budget plan, issued in February, projects a $1.6 trillion deficit for 2011 and a cumulative shortfall of $11 trillion through 2021. Things may get worse, as additional revenue and projected cost savings from health care reforms don't materialize and the 4 percent growth assumed by the president's budget for the next four years proves Pollyannaish.

The Effort by the governor of Wisconsin to restrict collective bargaining by labor unions is an unacceptable infringement on the rights of its citizens ("Wisconsin's governor to senators: Come home" Feb. 22). But the sad truth is that it demonstrates a rare sober effort by any government official in the U.S. to act seriously to diminish gross budgetary problems. It is sad that our federal government buckled to political pressures to extend Bush's tax reductions for our wealthiest citizens and that we are now asking middle class union members in Wisconsin and other citizens to pay the price for irresponsible spending.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-7th, and Republican challenger Kenneth Kondner squared off in a debate last night that highlighted their sharp differences on health care, gun control, reducing the federal deficit and other issues.In the debate taped earlier this week and aired last night on Maryland Public Television, Mr. Kondner, a Woodlawn dental technician, voiced support for several positions pushed by Republicans, including school choice, enterprise zones and reducing taxes to spur the economy and reduce the deficit.

In Tom Schaller's recent Op-Ed article ("Taxing the rich: good policy, good politics," April 6), he makes the case that the cure for our economic ills is more taxes on the rich. Tom argues that (1) increasing government spending stimulates the economy, (2) reducing income taxes retards economic growth, (3) the tax burden in the US too low, and (4) increasing taxes on the wealthy is justified because it's popular. Let's see, Obama and the governments of Greece, Ireland, and now Portugal have all spent trillions with little or no economic growth to show.

Rep. David Dreier, one of the newly empowered Republicans in the House of Representatives, said Wednesday, "It's often been said that we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. " Shortly thereafter, he and his colleagues took steps to make sure we will have both. Despite all their talk about fiscal responsibility, the Republicans who took over the House of Representatives this week have opened the door to budget changes that will have a much more lasting impact on the federal deficit than the bailouts or stimulus measures they derided during the last two years.

December has been billed as the month when Democrats and Republicans will finally get together to iron out a compromise over extending the Bush tax cuts. But recent exchanges of pleasantries aside, it appears only the White House is doing the compromising. The GOP's "all or nothing" strategy is pretty clear. Republicans on Capitol Hill believe they have the upper hand and President Barack Obama will blink. Rather than allow tax cuts for the middle class to expire, he and congressional Democrats will eventually endorse extending them for everyone.