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Where to Cut and Eliminate
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10507 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1993 |
3,202 Words |
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Donald Lambro
Donald Lambro is chief political correspondent for the
Washington Times. |
The enormity of the deficit-cutting task that faces President-elect Bill Clinton is staggering, yet not impossible. The federal deficit is nothing more than the accumulation of excessive, nonessential, and unaffordable expenditures that can be cut back or repealed one by one.
But to achieve his declared goal of cutting the deficit in half in four years Clinton must achieve a level of budgetary discipline that past presidents, Democrat or Republican, have not exerted in many years. His success will also depend on economic programs that revitalize the economy by stimulating new business investment and the economic growth essential to producing the revenues government needs to balance its books. There can be no meaningful, long-term deficit reduction without strong economic growth.
The pivotal budget figures, though relatively few in number, are largely beyond the comprehension of mere mortals: a yearly federal budget deficit of $300 billion (actually closer to $400 billion because Congress did not appropriate this year's request for banking bailout costs) and a gross national debt of nearly $5 trillion.
Whatever they may think they already know about government, Clinton and his incoming administration, not to mention new members of Congress who will be taking their seats in January, will be stunned by the budget monster that awaits them. "Even the most reform-minded lawmaker could be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the federal budget--a document over 2,200 pages long, representing nearly $1.5 trillion in annual expenditures or more than 25 percent of America's gross domestic product," says Scott Hodge, budget analyst of the Heritage Foundation.
By way of comparison, when Ronald Reagan entered the presidency in 1981, the deficit was a mere $60 billion, the budget was about $600 billion, and the gross debt was nearing $1 trillion.
Since then, spending growth has rapidly accelerated to the point where the budget is now expanding at breakneck speed. Reagan left office with a budget a little over $1 trillion and federal revenues approaching that sum. George Bush leaves office with the annual budget nearly $1.5 trillion and revenues over $1.1 trillion.
The reason for this sharp increase in spending, at a time when real defense spending has been declining, has to do with congressional budget system without any real controls; entitlements,
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