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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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112089
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1990-09-19
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NATION, Page 68Blink or Go BrokeThe budget battle nears the bottom line: bankruptcy
In the Washington version of budget brinkmanship, the stakes
range from the health of the world's largest economy and the
strength of its armed forces to the fate of a college student's
grant. All that and more were put at risk last week, when the
capital's political gamblers -- the President and the Democratic
leaders of Congress -- allowed the nation to bump up against the
threat of bankruptcy.
With only 17 hours to spare, Congress passed and George Bush
signed a bill lifting the U.S. debt ceiling to $3.12 trillion, thus
averting a default. Granted authority to draw on an additional $250
billion of other people's money, the Treasury is again able to pay
the Government's bills.
The regular, inescapable need for new borrowing authority has
inspired Democrats and Republicans alike to play dangerous,
self-serving games. Hoping to revive Bush's cherished reduction in
the capital-gains tax, Senate Republicans considered attaching it
to the debt-ceiling legislation. Majority Leader George Mitchell,
increasingly playing the role of an unyielding Horatius at the
Bridge, blocked them. Democrats similarly toyed with piggybacking
onto the debt bill measures that Bush would veto if passed
separately. Both sides backed off only when the nation was on the
brink of insolvency.
Nor are the games over. In a feisty mood, Bush urged reporters
last week to go after Congress for thwarting his and the nation's
will. He vowed to leave in place automatic spending cuts that will
trim $16.1 billion from the $1.2 trillion 1990 budget unless
Congress on its own cuts about $14 billion from the deficit without
resorting to "gimmicks." Unmentioned was the fact that most of the
existing gimmicks were first proposed by the Administration.
Bush's threat was undermined a day later by his own Defense
Department. Pentagon Comptroller Sean O'Keefe told the Senate Armed
Services Committee that an $8.1 billion cut in defense would result
in a 10% loss in U.S. combat readiness, an unacceptable political
risk.
Mitchell and House Speaker Tom Foley have vowed to pass a
"clean" budget bill, unadorned by amendments, before Congress
adjourns around Thanksgiving. A veto would leave the automatic cuts
in force at least until next year, indiscriminately slicing muscle
as well as fat from most Government programs.