OMB Director Says More Must Be Done For Long-Term Deficit Reduction

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Peter Orszag said Thursday that the steps currently being taken to reduce the national deficit, although effective, are not enough.

The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to those who have an income of $250,000 or more will expire as scheduled, Orszag said. In the coming decade, this will reduce the deficit by nearly $700 billion.

Transitioning to a clean energy future by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies delivered through the tax code will reduce the deficit by about $40 billion in the next ten years.


And the three-year freeze of non-security discretionary spending will further reduce the deficit an additional $250 billion, solidifying a $1.2 trillion reduction in national deficits.

“Even with that $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, the deficit remains higher than we’d like it to be,” Orszag said. “[This] is why we are calling for the creation of a bipartisan fiscal commission to put forward recommendations to get us the rest of the way to a stable debt trajectory.”

Orszag added that this would involve overall deficits of roughly 3 percent of the economy by 2015.

According to Orszag, deficit reduction is evident in the coming decade but he remains skeptical about the long-term fiscal challenge, saying that the root cause of the country’s deficit is the rate at which health care costs are growing.

“We are eager to continue to work with Congress to finally enact comprehensive health reform legislation, Orszag said. “[This] helps to reduce the deficit, not only over this decade, but equally important, puts in place the infrastructure that will allow us to decrease deficit by increasing amounts thereafter.”

DOD Requests $549 Billion From Congress

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen pleaded with Congress to approve a $549 billion DOD budget for FY2011 during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.

But this request does not include an extra $159 billion to support Overseas Contingency Operations, primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a $33 billion war supplemental to support the President’s new agenda in Afghanistan.

Mullen said that Afghanistan is becoming the “center of gravity” for U.S. forces and added that the nation’s efforts will yield positive results within the next 18 months. Mullen also said that in that time, the number of American soldiers should decrease to 50 thousand and the military’s role should shift from combat to an advise-and-assist role.

“Getting there will demand discipline and hard work,” Mullen said. “It will most assuredly demand more sacrifice and more bloodshed, but the stakes are far too high for failure.”

Both Mullen and Gates stressed the importance of balancing the dissemination of funding to a variety of DOD initiatives.

The $549 billion budget is said to support a wide array of new and continuing Armed Forces initiatives. The modernization and creation of new ground, sea and air combat vehicles are key investments in preparing the military for the future, Gates said.

According to Mullen, the budget will also secure nearly $9 billion to support military families and advocacy programs. This includes child care and youth programs, counseling for veterans, military spouse employment and $2.2 billion for wounded, ill, and injured soldiers.

“It’s about balance, it’s about deterring and winning the big and the small wars, the conventional and unconventional,” Mullen said. “But where balance is most needed is in the programs and policies of our most important resource, our people.”

U.S. Not Out Of The Woods Yet, Says Economist

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

In his State of the Union address on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said, “The worst of the storm has passed.” But according to Chief Economist of Moody’s Corporation Mark Zandi, the country remains at high risk of revisiting a recessionary period.

Evidence of a 5.7 percent increase in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) proves that the “Great Recession” is over, Zandi said on Friday. He applauded and credited policy initiatives produced by Federal Reserve Chariman Ben Bernanke.

According to Zandi, the President’s 2009 stimulus package pumped billions of dollars into the economy and is partly responsible for its recent growth. It is evident now, however, that the stimulus package will eventually become an opposing force against efforts to expand the efficiency of the economy, Zandi said.

Although signs of economic expansion are evident, Zandi admitted that the country is still susceptible to falling back into a recession.

“The recovery is fragile,” Zandi said. “I don’t think that the coast is clear, I don’t think there is any guarantee that the recovery is going to evolve into a self-sustaining economic expansion...there are high odds [indicating] that it won’t.”

Zandi blamed the high-risk situation on the nation's ten percent unemployment rate for the U.S., saying that without net job creation, the country will not have the income growth to support consumer spending. He said that small business expansion will serve as the backbone for this effort and applauded the President for initiating tax breaks for those businesses.

Rural America Needs Quality Health Care Too, Says U.S. Agriculture Official

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plays a key role in increasing health care for rural America, according to USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. Merrigan spent Wednesday morning speaking with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and its members at the organization’s 21st Annual Rural Health Policy Institute.

The NRHA, a non-profit organization, has been in Washington all week consulting with various House Members regarding initiatives to expand the quality of health care coverage to rural America.

According to Merrigan, the USDA is working hard to increase the availability of quality health care to rural Americans. Over the past ten years, the Department of Agriculture awarded $2.6 billion through loans and grants to over 1,200 health care facilities. According to Merrigan, this money was used to improve facility infrastructure and to build new hospitals and clinics in rural America.

Merrigan also said that the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act granted the USDA $2.5 billion in an effort to expand broadband connection to rural hospitals and communities. Merrigan believes that this expansion will improve the long-term economic health of rural America and increase the efficiency of exchanging information between institutions.

“High speed connections will allow medical specialists to tell a medicine to provide advanced diagnosis for patients,” Merrigan said. “Or, to consult colleagues in other hospitals while sharing medical records.”

Using the theme, “Community Matters,” NRHA President Dennis Berens advocated the collaboration between his organization and Congress to expand quality health care to rural communities, saying “health, like politics, is always local.”

Spending Freeze Will Only Affect Some Programs, Says White House Official

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Not everyone will feel the wrath of President Barack Obama’s three-year spending freeze, said Rob Nabors, Deputy Director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

“When we talk about the freeze, this is not an across the board cut,” Nabors said Tuesday during a conference call with reporters.

Nabors said that only the programs that have stalled, are not achieving their mission and those of lower priority will be subject to the President’s proposed freeze.

“We made a series of decisions where some programs are actually getting increases, some programs are getting decreased,” he said. “We’re looking at programs individually.”

When asked if Congress will be able to tackle a job creation bill in the nine months before the freeze takes effect at the beginning of FY2011 in October, Nabors responded, “yes, we will be able to put people back to work and make sure that the economy is growing.”