Brian Riedl
Brian Riedl
annual bold budget budgets deficit fiscal good growing growth immediate issue overwhelm pledge president programs proposal propose quickly rate reforms slow threaten trends
President Bush's pledge to halve the budget deficit by 2009 distracts policymakers from the real issue of unsustainable trends in long-term entitlement spending. The president's proposal to slow Medicare's 9% annual growth rate is a good fiscal step, but the budget does not propose enough immediate and bold reforms to the quickly growing entitlement programs that threaten to overwhelm the budget.
ability cripple cut explore given hunger nasa national nor represents
NASA represents something important in the national psyche. Given that, there isn't a lot of hunger to cut NASA substantially, nor to cripple their ability to explore space.
absence assume fix reform state tax union
In the absence of even mentioning tax reform in his State of the Union address, it may be presumptuous to assume a revenue-neutral AMT fix after 2007.
area classify count generally gray list obviously oppose setting similar specific spending though
I generally would still not count that as an earmark, even though it has a similar effect, because it is such a gray area of how specific is too specific when setting eligibility criteria. I obviously oppose those provisions, but I would not classify them the same as spending earmarks that actually list the name.
current decisions difficult increases points political spending tax trend
The current trend points to tax increases in the long run. The political will to make the difficult decisions on spending is lacking.
becomes cause economic fiscal pain situation
The fiscal situation will probably have to worsen and cause some economic pain before it becomes a priority.