A Balanced Budget?
A Balanced Budget?
This year President Clinton will submit his proposed legislation for the
Federal Budget to Congress. The fact that we have divided government (ex.,
Democratic President, Republican majority in Congress) means the majority of
that legislation won't make it through the first ten minutes of a Congressional
session. The President in turn will veto legislation presented to him by
Congress. The whole situation is a vicious, never ending circle. Each side is
looking out for their own best interests, and after years, even decades of this
the United States has a huge budget deficit. Is there a solution to all this
madness? Is it feasible to balance the Federal Budget? Every politician on
Capitol Hill claims to have the answer. The Federal Government goes as far to
employ some of the most renowned economist's in the world to try to solve the
deficit mess, and they still haven't figured it out.
The budget simulation exercise by The Committee for a Responsible
Federal Budget provided choices Congress has to use as its guide for the
upcoming year. How hard can it be to balance the budget I thought? After doing
the exercised I realized the title of the simulation exercise, "The FY 1997
Budget: An Exercise in Hard Choices," could not have been more appropriate. It
is possible though to balance the Federal Budget, provided you follow 3 simple
rules. First you must decide what you feel is important, then cut without
consciousness, and if that doesn't work, alter your baseline.
Important Choices
When deciding on what I thought was important to protect in the budget,
I felt like a politician myself. I protected my own self interests. First up was
Defense. The fact that I am in the Marine Officer Program weighed heavily on my
decision to increase Defense spending by 17.6 billion (all...
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