President Reagan’s fiscal 1985 budget is a curious document.
It seems that it is more of a starting point, or an opening salvo in a political slugfest with the Democrats than it is a serious spending proposal.
President Reagan’s 1985 budget proposes to virtually freeze non-defense domestic spending next year and increase military spending by 13 percent – or $47 billion.
Even before the ink was dry, there were cracks spreading in the White House stucco.
David Stockman, the presidents budget officer, was on Capitol Hill presenting a less than enthusiastic defense of the spending plan.
Martin Feldstein, his economic adviser, was saying the President couldn’t wait a year to propose spending cuts in the budget and some new taxes.
Only Larry Speakes, his spokesman, endorsed the plan.
Stockman claims contracts already signed for major new weapons systems makes it technically impossible to freeze military spending, but other than that, he said everything else is up for grabs.
He called the projected $180 billion deficit a “national predicament.”
That predicament is in reality a national disgrace. It is disgraceful that those we elect to represent us haven’t the will to curb their own spending.
“The administration has indicated that all issues are on the table – domestic spending, defense spending and revenue increases” – to help shrink the deficits, Stockman said.
He indicated the President will propose some cuts next year that will address the problem of deficits, but he said no one wanted to do that this year because as soon as he did, his Democratic opponents would immediately go around pledging not to do that.
That reasoning is probably sound, but the conclusion that the deficit will wait a year is not.
Something has to be done now. It’s wrong of the President to be unwilling to name his poison He is the one who sets the national agenda for debate. If he would honestly state the areas he wants to cut, he just may get the kind of mandate he needs to do that at the ballot box.
Stockman did hint that some of the obvious areas where future cuts might he appropriate are farm price supports, student aid, veteran health care, Medicaid and federal pensions.
When we can’t afford a program, we can’t afford it. We are at the point where all of those programs and many others need to be trimmed.
If trimming is done sensitively and across a broad enough range of programs, we should be able to return to federal spending levels we can afford without causing too great a hardship on anyone.
Congress and the President must find the willpower to cu! the deficit – and that shouldn’t wait until next year.