Fiscal Policy

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - President Bush has signed into law an economic stimulus bill that's too small to be a real stimulus and too late to be of much use. Congress could have enacted legislation of this sort in the fall but for an unseemly political quarrel. Republicans fought for fiscally irresponsible retroactive tax cuts of dubious value in stimulating current spending. Democratic plans, while more balanced toward people of lesser means and the unemployed, weren't (and aren't) well targeted to raise consumption broadly across the economy.

So two of our state's Democratic Party leaders want to blame sequester on the Republican party ("Fix the sequester before it's too late," May 5)? They also tout Maryland as an example of the right way to manage our affairs and talk of their balanced approach to fiscal policy. The reality of their balanced approach has been unprecedented increases in taxes and user fees in our great state. These increases have and continue to impact the same middle class citizens they claim they are protecting.

Nobody ever said the Federal Reserve Board was perfect. Indeed, prize-winning economists spanning the ideological spectrum are complaining that the Fed prolonged the Bush recession by keeping interest rates too high. No doubt George Bush would agree. But do these complaints justify efforts on Capitol Hill to place tighter congressional controls on the nation's central bankers?We think not. Having botched fiscal policy over a large number of years, Congress should be wary of trying to control monetary policy.

One of the more amusing subplots of Washington's latest (if not most pitiful) fiscal standoff is the greater investment in finger-pointing and history rewriting than in actually negotiating a compromise. House Speaker John A. Boehner is particularly fond of referring to the "Obama sequester," as if the president of the United States had authority over the budget - or there was even much hope that he could force Congress to take action on one. But at least Mr. Boehner is willing to concede that the automatic spending cuts due on March 1 are "bad policy," whereas many others in his party seemed to have recently adopted the stance that they are not. In one week, about $85 billion in across-the-board cuts go through - cuts in national defense and other vital programs originally designed to maximize Washington's discomfort and force negotiations.

So two of our state's Democratic Party leaders want to blame sequester on the Republican party ("Fix the sequester before it's too late," May 5)? They also tout Maryland as an example of the right way to manage our affairs and talk of their balanced approach to fiscal policy. The reality of their balanced approach has been unprecedented increases in taxes and user fees in our great state. These increases have and continue to impact the same middle class citizens they claim they are protecting.

THE TIMES cry out for the economic stimulus that President Bush proposed to Congress. It should be large, immediate and temporary. The package entails one year of federal deficit spending, whether that is admitted or not. It should not be allowed to usher in a new decade of deficit addition that would raise interest rates and curtail growth. The conversion of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to sooner rather than later paves the way to agreement. The president wisely offered parameters that meet the concerns of his political opponents.

I constantly hear adults talking about the importance of instilling "values" in my generation. For the last 14 years, my classroom walls have been plastered with obnoxiously bright posters touting the necessity of civility and respect for others. At school, compromise among students is stressed as a sign of maturity. Yet when I turn on the news, I hear of politicians pointing fingers at each other over the "fiscal cliff" rather than following the Golden Rule. Why have our legislators not come any closer to creating sustainable solutions to these urgent economic issues?

Things I don't want to hear any more:1) The holiday shopping season will be awful for retailers, and frightened consumers will scurry back into their holes for six more months of recession.Traditional holiday seasons are gone forever, and so will be the retailers who depended on them.2) Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is such a nice guy, and smart, too!3a) Despite years of huge budget deficits and little indication that Congress will ever be capable of balancing the budget, the proper national fiscal policy would be to cut taxes.

WASHINGTON - When President Bush was elected, the nation enjoyed a budget surplus of $200 billion. The government had money to properly fund programs such as education, health care and prescription drugs for seniors. Now, our economy is in a vastly different place. We live with a stagnant economy and increasing unemployment. The number of unemployed Americans has grown from 5.9 million in May 2001 to 8.5 million in April this year. Two years after Mr. Bush implemented a tax cut touted to stimulate the economy, we are moving in the wrong direction.

Ben Bernanke was doing his very best Greenspan, and, for the most part, it worked. But every now and then, glimmers of the Federal Reserve of the future shot through. It's early, but a couple of things he said in his confirmation hearing yesterday before the Senate banking committee suggest that he might not be the inflation-fighting champion he claims to be. Bernanke is President Bush's nominee to replace the lavishly praised Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Fed, the central bank that controls the nation's money supply.

I constantly hear adults talking about the importance of instilling "values" in my generation. For the last 14 years, my classroom walls have been plastered with obnoxiously bright posters touting the necessity of civility and respect for others. At school, compromise among students is stressed as a sign of maturity. Yet when I turn on the news, I hear of politicians pointing fingers at each other over the "fiscal cliff" rather than following the Golden Rule. Why have our legislators not come any closer to creating sustainable solutions to these urgent economic issues?

It's bad enough when economists contradict each other, but it's even more frustrating when they contradict themselves. Or, as George Bernard Shaw once observed, if all economists were laid end to end, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion. That thought came to mind last week when the Congressional Budget Office reported that "Taxmageddon," the combination of expiring tax cuts and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January, could push the nation back into recession. That's a worrisome prospect that appears to have gotten the attention of Congress.

Let's start with a confectionary confession: I like snacks. Friends have accused me of single-handedly - sometimes double-handedly - supporting the Little Debbie snack cakes empire. My family knows I hold a special place in my belly and heart for those creme-centered, round Goetze's caramels that my grandfather stowed in the little compartment between the car seats. I also have a weakness for Doritos. So imagine my visceral unease, figuratively and literally, to news that Maryland legislators are yet again considering a tax on snack foods.

Ben Bernanke was doing his very best Greenspan, and, for the most part, it worked. But every now and then, glimmers of the Federal Reserve of the future shot through. It's early, but a couple of things he said in his confirmation hearing yesterday before the Senate banking committee suggest that he might not be the inflation-fighting champion he claims to be. Bernanke is President Bush's nominee to replace the lavishly praised Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Fed, the central bank that controls the nation's money supply.

WASHINGTON - When President Bush was elected, the nation enjoyed a budget surplus of $200 billion. The government had money to properly fund programs such as education, health care and prescription drugs for seniors. Now, our economy is in a vastly different place. We live with a stagnant economy and increasing unemployment. The number of unemployed Americans has grown from 5.9 million in May 2001 to 8.5 million in April this year. Two years after Mr. Bush implemented a tax cut touted to stimulate the economy, we are moving in the wrong direction.

FROM THE burgeoning metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington to the rural Eastern Shore, the 2002 elections brought renewed attention to Smart Growth and the issues Maryland is addressing with its innovative response to urban sprawl. As this debate continues into a new political era, it is important to reiterate what the Smart Growth initiative is all about and recommit to the goals we set five years ago as we embarked on these reforms. The need to recast our development patterns is as urgent as ever.

TOKYO -- Smiling and clearly relieved, Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa said late last night that the world's two biggest economic powers had gone through a tortured series of negotiations but finally been able to "give birth to an understanding."The understanding to restart trade talks was no easy birth and largely symbolic, but after a bitter and acrimonious dispute it was greeted in Japan as a clear sign that U.S.-Japanese relations are heading along the right path and toward agreement on substantive points.

One of this year's most bruising political match-ups looms in Anne Arundel County, where the populist John Leopold is battling the conservative John Gary for the chance to become county executive. The incumbent, Bobby Neall, is bowing out after a single term.The fratricidal conflict seems not only harmful to the Republican Party, but unnecessary, with Messrs. Leopold and Gary similar in many respects. Both are 50-year-old legislative veterans who have intensely focused on local issues.And both are equally adept at getting attention.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - President Bush has signed into law an economic stimulus bill that's too small to be a real stimulus and too late to be of much use. Congress could have enacted legislation of this sort in the fall but for an unseemly political quarrel. Republicans fought for fiscally irresponsible retroactive tax cuts of dubious value in stimulating current spending. Democratic plans, while more balanced toward people of lesser means and the unemployed, weren't (and aren't) well targeted to raise consumption broadly across the economy.

THE TIMES cry out for the economic stimulus that President Bush proposed to Congress. It should be large, immediate and temporary. The package entails one year of federal deficit spending, whether that is admitted or not. It should not be allowed to usher in a new decade of deficit addition that would raise interest rates and curtail growth. The conversion of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to sooner rather than later paves the way to agreement. The president wisely offered parameters that meet the concerns of his political opponents.