Budget Essay, Research Paper

THE BUDGET

To pass a budget deal takes a lot of time and work. There are many factors involved in this long process. The President first has to propose a plan to balance the budget. He has to look at the Federal deficit and talk with Congress. Congress then will negotiate or compromise a plan of their own with the President.

In early March, President Bill Clinton began to put together a plan to balance the budget. He then gave Congress the plan to look over. At this time, congress criticized the plan, saying it would cost the country a bigger Federal deficit. Over the past three months, Congressional Leaders and the Clinton Administration have been doing a lot of compromising and negotiating over a plan to balance the federal budget by the year 2002. Since the Federal deficit isn’t that large, it is helping them to come up with a deal a lot easier and quicker.

Although the fact that there is a low Federal deficit, they are still meeting some major complications in approving a plan or even coming up with a plan that can be agreed on. In order to balance the budget by 2002, the government would have to cut spending on things that really couldn’t afford it. The schools of the country need repairing. By cutting on the spending of schools, deteriorating schools would not receive the proper funding to make the schools safe and sanitary. Another item that spending would be cut from is Medicare, Medicaid, and social security. This would mainly affect the elderly and the poor. By cutting spending on these items, the elderly and the poor would not receive that much medical coverage, which is vital to them. Another factor which isn’t being very helpful in the budget deal is tax cuts. Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on where to cut taxes from.

Democratic Congressional Leaders feel that President Clinton is having “secret” meetings with Republican Congressional Leaders on the budget plan. They feel that the President isn’t telling them everything and that these meetings are being held “behind their backs”. Some even say that President Clinton is acting more like a republican than a democrat. Some evidence of this is that the President is proposing tax cuts for businesses, or the wealthy. They say that “ordinary and low income people are suffering the most. They also said that Clinton is rushing into a deal and that he would probably not get a majority of House Democratic votes.

In my opinion, I think Clinton is doing a moderate job at trying to balance the budget, it is neither a good or a bad job. Being that there is a strong economy and a fairly low Federal deficit, the plan is a little bit easier to come up with. Both Democrats and Republicans agree. However, he should deal with the democrats a little more. President Clinton is dealing to much with Congressional Republicans. This is the cause for some tension with the Democrats and who could blame them. Clinton is coming up with deals that would benefit Republicans and the wealthy rather than the democrats and the moderate to low income people. I also feel that taking away spending for schools to balance the budget is not a god move. That money had a purpose and that purpose was very necessary.

In conclusion, I realized that balancing the budget is a very hard and long process. I give President Clinton a lot of credit for this very hard job. His attempts are genuine and he is trying to the best for our country.