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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
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Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
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Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
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Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
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January 30, 2012
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Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
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Jewish World Review
May 11, 2009
/ 17 Iyar 5769
Molehill Out of a Budget Mountain
By
David Broder
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The mountain labored, and brought forth a mouse. Last week the administration confronted the budget of the U.S. government in the "line by line" review long promised by President Obama and found theoretical savings almost invisible to the naked eye.
The nickel-and-dime exercise, a repeat of equally futile gestures by former president George W. Bush, claimed $17 billion in savings in a $3.4 trillion spending plan a bit less than one-half of 1 percent.
Judd Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said, "This amounts to less than an asterisk when it comes to the amount of debt and deficit that we will be running up as a government."
The Democratic chairman of that committee, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, was a bit more polite, saying that "the effort will help" but adding that "as important as program terminations and cuts are, we should not lose sight of the far larger threat to our nation's finances the combination of the retiring baby-boom generation, rising health-care costs and our outdated and inefficient revenue system."
Conrad and Gregg have proposed attacking that larger problem by creating a bipartisan commission to examine the big entitlement programs Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid where savings must be found, and the tax systems that support them.
That proposal and its counterpart in the House of Representatives, sponsored by Republican Frank Wolf of Virginia and Democrat Jim Cooper of Tennessee, have been stymied for two years principally by the adamant opposition of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
So far, Obama has not challenged her, even though he knows as well as anyone that significant steps to avoid a succession of trillion-dollar annual deficits when we emerge from this recession clearly will require reform of entitlements and taxes.
Last week, in a courageous break with party solidarity, the House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, reiterated his support for the commission idea, suggesting that Congress tackle Social Security along with the health-care reform Obama has put on the agenda.
As Hoyer pointed out, the options for dealing with Social Security "are well and widely understood. We can bring in more revenues. We can restrain the growth of benefits, particularly for higher-income workers, while we strengthen the safety net for lower-income workers. And/or we can raise the retirement age, recognizing that our life expectancy is significantly higher today."
"What is missing here," he said, "is not ideas. It is political will" and the degree of trust between the parties needed for successful bargaining.
More and more Democrats and Republicans are expressing a readiness for such an effort. In response to Hoyer's speech, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who traveled the country last year with John McCain, told my Post colleague Lori Montgomery, "I think we can get double-digit Republican support for a reasonable compromise."
As if to confirm his words, Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio and independent Democrat Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut introduced an entitlement commission bill last week. Voinovich told me that he thinks "the prospects for action on the issue are very, very good, because the feeling is growing that we can't sustain the path we're on."
When I spoke with Graham by phone, he outlined a plan that would not only embrace Hoyer's proposals but also provide bigger benefits for retirees past 80 "who are outliving their 401(k)s" in increasing numbers.
Graham said that with leadership from Obama, including a barnstorming tour with congressional supporters from both parties, such a compromise could pass Congress this year with no need for a commission.
But while these Republicans are gung-ho, Hoyer is cautious. He reminded me in an interview that both Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have thrown cold water on the commission idea, and said that signals from the White House suggest that Obama would not want anything to get in the way of his health care and energy initiatives this year.
If that means more futile gestures, like last week's tiny budget cuts, the nation and Obama will have missed an opportunity.
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Previously:
05/07/09: The Life of His Party
05/04/09: Detroit Opens Up the Hood
04/30/09: Specter the defector
04/26/09: Stop Scapegoating: Obama Should Stand Against Prosecutions
04/23/09: A Bravura Opening
04/13/09: Why the Center Still Holds
04/09/09: Being a sports fan just got a whole lot better
04/06/09: A Bipartisan Bill Worth Celebrating
04/02/09: Obama's Muscle Moment
03/30/09: Warning: Congress is about to perform a cover-up on the most serious threat to America's economic future
03/23/09: Mr. Cool's March Madness
03/16/09: End of the honeymoon
03/08/09: Education's Chance of a Lifetime: Reforming Education With Sufficient Resources
03/05/09: Running on empty
03/01/09: Illinois' Mr. Clean
02/26/09: Obama rolls the dice
02/22/09: New Eyes On Bigger Prizes
02/19/09: Betting on bipartisanship
02/16/09: Just the Start
02/12/09: Biden in the House
02/09/09: The GOP Faces the Blue Wall
02/06/09: A cabinet loss and gain
02/02/09: The votes Obama truly needs
02/02/09: It's no joke to Illinois
01/26/09: Dynasties in decline
01/22/09: Born to build bridges
01/19/09: The call that Bush didn't make
01/15/09: Diplomacy that heals
01/12/09: An early drubbing for Obama
01/09/09: Tales From Longworth
01/05/09: Missing A Few Sages
01/02/09: Illinois Outdoes Itself
12/29/08: The GOP Goes South
12/15/08: Health Reform's Moment
12/11/08: Long Path to a Fall in Illinois
12/08/08: Rescuing a college education
12/04/08: The danger of holdovers
11/31/08: Addressing the States' Dire Straits
11/28/08: Good time for a brainy president
11/24/08: Rising Hope For Fixing Health Care
11/19/08: A Force for Good but Not at State
11/17/08: GOP has work to do
11/13/08: Obama's good start
11/10/08: Governors Know Best
11/06/08: The Task Ahead
11/03/08: The Amazing Race: I thought 1960 was the best campaign I'd ever cover. But 2008 has that election beat
10/30/08: What We've Learned About McCain
10/27/08: A New England Brawl
10/23/08: Blue Sparks in Red Ohio
10/17/08: Obama's Assurance Policy
10/14/08: Live from the Pennsylvania frontlines
10/12/08: The proposals that could bind Obama
10/09/08: What do we really know about them?
10/06/08: The uplifting debate
10/02/08: Economics Exam in Michigan
09/28/08: McCain out-pointed Obama
09/26/08: Credibility Test for Congress
09/22/08: A debate's high stakes
09/22/08: Down days for McCain
09/15/08: The Next President's Due Bill
09/11/08: GOP celebration and Dem gloom are premature
09/08/08: Can we count on change?
09/03/08: Palin's Learning Curve
09/02/08: How Palin could help
09/02/08: What Happened to the Obama of 2004?
08/26/08: The Women Hit Their Mark
08/25/08: The Joe I know … and what it means for McCain
08/21/08: In N.H., a Deal to Close
08/18/08: Obama's Well-Oiled Machine
08/14/08: Pros and Conventions: Useful Ideas From the Stevensons and Friends
08/11/08: Rivals in Search of Trust
08/07/08: A Way Back to the High Road?
08/04/08: A Slate To Revive The Senate
07/31/08: When Congress Works
07/29/08: Management 101 for Senators
07/24/08: Obama's success abroad was pure luck
07/21/08: Obama's success abroad was pure luck
07/17/08: Governors offer real world wisdom. Obama and McCain would be wise to listen
07/14/08: Foes and allies strive to peg a shifty Obama
07/10/08: Fixing How We Go to War
07/07/08: Decider on the High Court
07/03/08: One Nation No More? Civics Needs a Boost, but Our Identity Endures
06/30/08: Dumbing Down the Presidency
06/26/08: Voting's Neglected Scandal
06/23/08: Why don't we know what makes Obama tick?
06/19/08: Foreign Policy's Best Hope
06/16/08: Perot, Back On the Charts
06/16/08: The Many Gifts of Tim Russert
06/12/08: Why Hillary played the womyn card
06/08/08: Eclipsed by the Adventures of Hillary
06/02/08: Obama in retreat
06/02/08: Reality vs. the Mythmakers
05/29/08: Hamilton Jordan's Message to Obama
05/27/08: Let the Veepstakes Begin
05/19/08: The mental exercise of placing Obama in the Oval Office requires more imagination than did moving Reagan from the silver screen to Pennsylvania Ave.
05/15/08: For Obama, a Lost Moment
05/12/08: The price of delay
05/08/08: Phoniness and inevitability
05/05/08: Winning by destruction: An insider reveals the Hillary game plan
05/01/08: Candidates' high-mindedness is rooted in religiosity; but Hillary and McCain don't have hater as inspiration
© 2008, by WPWG
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