Reduce The Deficit

Bill is reinventing his politics again.Santa wants to give something to the middle class? Reduce the deficit. Quit taxing to pay it off. Period.Merlin is in for quiet times. Parris put his gun control back in the holster.Now we'll never know why she does not spell it Dee D. Myers.

Bar the door, Nelly - the Fed has abandoned all restraint and will now print money to finance the federal deficit. To support the weak recovery, the Federal Reserve continues to keep short-term interest rates near zero, purchase mortgage-backed securities and push down long-term interest rates. To accomplish the latter, since September 2011, the Fed has sold Treasury bills with terms of less than three years to purchase bonds with longer maturities. Now, with its supply of short-term securities running out, the Fed will simply print new money to buy U.S. government debt - at a pace of $45 billion a month.

WASHINGTON -- As he edges closer to re-entering the presidential campaign, Ross Perot says the attention paid to the federal deficit will determine whether he gets back into the race.He contends that the economic plans of President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton will not reduce the deficit, projected at $333.5 billion this year, and that only his economic program can do the job. He also suggests that the deficit is the country's major economic problem these days. Is he right?The answers, according to many economists: Yes, his program would reduce the deficit; no, the deficit is not the major economic problem for today, but it will be for tomorrow.

Americans could scarcely be blamed for viewing any proposal to "simplify" taxes with skepticism. From Steve Forbes' flat tax of 1996 to Herman Cain's recent 9-9-9 proposal, efforts to make taxes simpler have usually meant - at least when held up to closer scrutiny - shifting the budgetary burden from the rich to the working class. But what President Barack Obama revealed today appears to be a far more reasonable attempt to reduce the nation's corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent (and allowing manufacturers an even lower 25 percent)

The union that represents employees at the Maryland Port Administration said it is worried that layoffs scheduled at the port won't be handled fairly.MPA director Adrian Teel yesterday said as many as 46 people could lose their jobs at the end of October in restructuring designed to reduce deficits at the port. He announced plans to eliminate 72 positions, some of which are vacant.Teel said workers will be evaluated on performance and in terms of whether their jobs contribute to the MPA's mission of increasing cargo shipments.

WASHINGTON -- Scarcely two months after raising taxes by $137 billion to help reduce the federal deficit, the House voted yesterday to jettison a new check on spending that was part of the five-year budget accord worked out between Congress and President Bush.The Democratic majority rammed the change through over bitter GOP protests that the House was reneging on its word and making a mockery of the anti-deficit law passed in November.A Republican effort to block the change was defeated 250-162, along party lines.

Anne Arundel school officials announced yesterday a series of cost-cutting measures - including freezing staff travel and closing accounts for school supplies - designed to reduce a $14.7 million deficit for this fiscal year. Officials expect to save $9.6 million with the cuts, but that still might have to come from the county if the school system can't find more cuts. "We've taken a pretty fine microscope to this problem," interim Superintendent Kenneth P. Lawson said yesterday. "There's no large pot of money sitting around that we haven't looked at very critically."

WASHINGTON - Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned yesterday that the federal budget deficits are "unsustainable" and urged Congress to act, preferably by cutting spending. He warned that the deficits could be driven even higher by costs connected to the aging of the baby boom generation, particularly entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. While reiterating his support for President Bush's plan to offer private accounts as part of overhauling Social Security, Greenspan urged lawmakers to tackle the program's problems now, rather than later.

Take your time, don't look for quick fixes and don't go overboard.That's the cautious advice from investment strategists as President-elect Bill Clinton jogs his way into the White House.Favorably impressed with Clinton's popularity and his politically moderate Cabinet choices, they nonetheless fret that he may come up with some "worst case scenario" economic solutions, as they believe some other Democrats have in the past.The ambitious nature of a few Clinton economic goals may be tempered quickly.

WASHINGTON -- Roscoe G. Bartlett Jr. won a congressiona seat as one of the many candidates whose distaste for business-as-usual in Washington led them to sign a "Lead or Leave" pledge, vowing to either chop the deficit in half in four years or leave office.But one hour after he was sworn in yesterday, the Republican from Maryland's 6th District was backing away from that campaign pledge."I signed that with the caveat that I would do my utmost" to reduce the deficit, said the freshman congressman.

The article in today's Sun by Rep. Chris Van Hollen ("Medicaid cuts would hurt us all," July 25) demonstrates how difficult it will be to reduce our budget deficit. While giving lip service to the need to reduce our federal budget deficit, he then maintains that there should be no reduction in the federal Medicaid program. Not one dime. Conspicuously absent in his article are any proposals to bring our deficit down. There is a reason for this. He has none. He was perfectly willing to pass budgets containing huge deficits when he and his party were in the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he will continue to do so if given the opportunity.

Do we have a deficit problem in this country? Yes. Some have suggested we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Let's look at it more closely Do we have a spending problem? Yes. Do we have a revenue problem? You betcha. Some would say the solution to the deficit is to lower taxes. That would increase revenue? Really? Here are some historical stats form the Office of Management and Budget to gain some perspective. During Jimmy Carter's administration, tax revenue grew at an average rate of 8.75 percent annually.

This week, I started a liquid fast. I'm fasting to get Congress to stop using deficit reduction as a tool for the indefensible slashing of budgets that provide basic support to the poor and the hungry, at home and abroad. I am fasting because hunger and poverty are, at bottom, women's issues. Women and girls make up a little over half of the world's population, but they account for over 60 percent of the world's hungry. The hunger fast I joined was launched this week by former Ohio Congressman and Ambassador Tony Hall, who fasted for 22 days in 1993 when he was chair of the Congressional Select Committee on Hunger to draw attention to the needs of the hungry in the U.S. and abroad.

With the new U.S Congress looking for ways to cut the deficit, we should demand that they eliminate their own health insurance from their benefits. If Republicans are so hell-bent on repealing the new health care law, they can give up their own health insurance. After all, they are essentially independent contractors, hired on for a two- or six-year stint, and most of them are rich enough to pay for their own insurance. Why should the taxpayer pay? And why do we pay for premium lifetime health benefits after they've served only 5 years?

No U.S. president of the modern era ever got in trouble with voters by speaking ill of civil servants. At least since Ronald Reagan, it's been far easier (and better politics) to portray the federal work force as lazy, uncaring, overpaid, anti-business and a waste of money. So in that context it's really no surprise that President Barack Obama chose to throw about 1.9 civilian federal employees under the proverbial Metrobus this week by embracing a two-year salary freeze even before his fiscal commission reports its budget-balancing recommendations Friday.

WASHINGTON - Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned yesterday that the federal budget deficits are "unsustainable" and urged Congress to act, preferably by cutting spending. He warned that the deficits could be driven even higher by costs connected to the aging of the baby boom generation, particularly entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. While reiterating his support for President Bush's plan to offer private accounts as part of overhauling Social Security, Greenspan urged lawmakers to tackle the program's problems now, rather than later.

IN THE race or out of it, Ross Perot has a knack for making the political conversation come to him. Just as he lured top-level emissaries from the Bush and Clinton campaigns to court him in Dallas, Perot is making the issues come to his home turf as well.Mr. Perot is trying to turn the election into a referendum on who has the most courageous plan to fix the economy by eliminating the federal deficit. That, of course, would be Ross Perot.For the most part, press coverage has played into Mr. Perot's hands by treating him as a brave if eccentric Paul Revere.

James A. Baker III rode out of Texas to join the posse of would-be Republican presidential candidates last night and delivered several thrusts at the Clinton administration in all its more vulnerable places.Speaking to about 150 members of the Maryland GOP at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the former secretary of state under George Bush faulted President Clinton generally for trying to avoid the presidential responsibility of conducting the nation's foreign policy, and specifically for his failures in Somalia, Haiti and Bosnia.

Anne Arundel school officials announced yesterday a series of cost-cutting measures - including freezing staff travel and closing accounts for school supplies - designed to reduce a $14.7 million deficit for this fiscal year. Officials expect to save $9.6 million with the cuts, but that still might have to come from the county if the school system can't find more cuts. "We've taken a pretty fine microscope to this problem," interim Superintendent Kenneth P. Lawson said yesterday. "There's no large pot of money sitting around that we haven't looked at very critically."

SEN. JOHN Breaux tells about a woman rushing up to him at a political event and saying: "Senator, I just love Medicare, it's so important to me. Please, please, don't let the federal government get their hands on it."The story is so striking because it reflects a profound ambivalence that lies at the core of the budget debate now reaching a boil on Capitol Hill. Like Mr. Breaux's confused constituent, millions of Americans have turned sharply against Washington and rejected the idea that politicians know what's best for ordinary people.