Spending Cuts Are Needed (Editorial)

It really is a whole new millennium. In the old one, Democrats were considered spendthrifts and Republicans were on a mission to cut spending and reduce the federal deficit.

Now we’re hearing from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that President Bush’s spending plans will turn a $900 billion surplus into a $1.8 trillion deficit in the next 10 years. And that could be an optimistic estimate. It doesn’t include the cost of the looming war with Iraq.

The Democratic administration that built up that surplus was, of course, the beneficiary of a robust economy, which helped far more than any Democratic policies. And the economic slowdown has been the major factor in moving from a budget surplus to a deficit. Major new spending on the war on terrorism and the preparations for war with Iraq along with the Bush tax cut last year have added to it.

Republicans are arguing that their tax cut plan is needed to stimulate the economy and that the CBO figures don’t take into account the faster growth and higher revenue that will result from the tax cuts.

Both parties are already posturing for another round of elections in 2004. (Don’t we ever get a break?) But when it comes down to the bottom line, there’s not much difference in the tax-and-spend policies of the two parties — just who will benefit from them.

We can’t help being concerned about the growing deficit and wondering at the wisdom of some parts of the president’s plans. Over the next decade, millions of baby boomers will move into retirement, which will have a tremendous impact on Social Security and Medicare. How will a much larger deficit affect Social Security and Medicare, especially if a prescription drug benefit is added?

And there’s the cost of the war. The CBO said deployment will cost about $14 billion on the front end and about $8 billion a month after the fighting starts. While we all hope it’s a short war, there’s no guarantee of what our forces will encounter.

The expected war with Iraq has certainly played a big part in postponing any economic recovery. And it has continued to play havoc with the stock markets as investors and corporations try to hang on long enough to see what’s going to unfold.

Despite the rather grim outlook of how much Bush’s proposed tax cuts will reduce federal revenue over the next decade, history has shown us that the economy has improved when taxes have been lowered. By the end of the next decade, barring the unforeseen, a growing economy could return a budget surplus.

It’s just time to balance tax cuts with some spending cuts.