Budget Reform: 'A Fig Leaf for the Election'

摘要

Congressional promises of a new era of fiscal discipline are fading as fast as Washington's cherry blossoms. On the surface, the talk of budget rules and spending curbs sounds tough. But the closer you look, the more you see old-fashioned fiscal gimmickry. After all, if s an election year. While lawmakers want voters to think they're stanching the red ink, these same pols also want to cut ribbons. So they will propose a spending "freeze" on domestic programs other than homeland security but exclude such big-ticket items as highways and "emergency" money bills. They will also debate new budget rules to require that tax cuts and new entitlement spending be financed by either raising other taxes or cutting other programs. But they will probably exempt at least $86 billion in tax breaks.