
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 21, 1993                   TAG: 9309210088
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

TSONGAS, RUDMAN UNVEIL DOWN-TO-ZERO DEFICIT PLAN

With a clock behind them clicking off the rising federal debt at a $12,000-a-second clip, two former senators offered a plan Monday to reduce the annual deficit to zero by the year 2000 - mostly through cuts in entitlement programs.

"Can you hear that?" asked Paul Tsongas, pointing to the clock which at that second stood at $4,388,900,813,764 - representing the total federal debt.

"That's our children's future ticking away," he said. "Those numbers are generationally immoral."

Tsongas, a Massachusetts Democrat who made a bid for the presidency last year, and Warren Rudman, a New Hampshire Republican, founded the Concord Coalition to work toward an end to budget deficits. They claimed on Monday to have members in 50 states after only one year.

The plan envisions reducing the annual deficit by $251 billion in the year 2000 by cutting $154 billion from spending and raising taxes by $71 billion. In addition, $35 billion would be added in interest savings and $10 billion would be set aside for investments to increase productive capacity.

Last month, Congress passed President Clinton's economic proposal to save $500 billion over 5 years. The coalition says that still will leave a deficit of $251 billion at the turn of the century.

At the heart of the Tsongas-Rudman proposal is reducing entitlement payments, such as Social Security and Medicare, for people with incomes above $40,000 a year.

"The 58 percent of Americans with incomes below $40,000 in 1995, when the means test begins to be phased in, would keep all of their entitlement benefits," the report says. "Entitlement payments, except for federal pensions (which would be reduced by other policies), would be reduced by 10 percent for every $10,000 of income above $40,000 up to a maximum reduction of 85 percent."

Rudman said that $81 billion of entitlement payments this year is going to Americans with incomes above $50,000.

In addition to a means test, the plan also would push back, faster than currently planned, the retirement age at which one could draw Social Security benefits.

by CNB