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Ask The Advisor: How Did This Administration Get So Much In Debt?
How did this administration get so much in debt after the previous one balanced the budget? It seems that the present administration has been doing something with our money to make it vanish! I want to see some kind of accounting to where and to whom the money went to! A: According to a recent editorial appearing in The New York Times, the deficit is unique in the degree to which it appears to be driven by tax cuts. The Times says, “it shows that they are in large part a result of deliberate policy decisions, not unforseen events. Last year, taxes fell to a percentage of the economy not seen, even in the deepest recessions, since 1955.” At the same time Congress and the President were cutting taxes, they also increased spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), non-defense discretionary spending (which includes pork barrel) increased by 9% in 2003 alone. Seniors who receive benefits through government programs have every right to be concerned, because the size of the deficit is masked by the surplus of the Social Security, Medicare and other government retirement Trust Funds, and is even greater than the government says. In recent months, The League became the first seniors’ organization in the nation to endorse H.J. Res. 88, legislation introduced by Representative Gene Taylor (D-MS) that would require a Constitutional Amendment to lock Social Security, Medicare, civil service and military retirement trust funds away from the federal budget deficit. H.J. Res. 88 would prevent the government from masking the size of the deficit by using these funds. TSCL encourages voters to talk seriously about the deficit and the need for a Constitutional Amendment to protect our retirement Trust Funds with your candidates. Sources: “Bid to Control Government Spending Fails,” The Associated Press, June 25, 2004. “Talking Deficits,” The New York Times, May 23, 2004. August 2004 | ||||||||
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