THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610190018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 49 lines
There's been a lot of loose talk about the size of government and the need for cuts over the last decade as the country has tried to come to terms with the simultaneous desire for tax reductions, government entitlements and a balanced budget. This has been the theme of the present presidential race as well.
From Robert Reischauer of the Brookings Institution comes a timely reminder of the actual shape of the federal budget and why cutting government isn't easy. Reischauer confirms that federal spending has grown faster than the economy for the past 40 years, rising from ``17.9 percent of GDP during 1956-60 to nearly 22 percent during 1991-95.''
Critics often try to blame the rise on waste, fraud and abuse, on relatively tiny programs like foreign aid, on symbolic issues like congressional pay and on rampant spending for social programs. Reischuaer points out that the real increase has been confined to the really big social programs that everyone relies on. That makes downsizing very difficult.
``. . . other than interest payments on the debt, all of the growth was accounted for by increased spending on social security and health programs, both of which are directed largely at the elderly. Spending on the balance of government activities - defense, international affairs and domestic programs other than health - has declined as a share of GDP by almost one-third, from 14.6 percent in 1956-60 to 10.3 percent in 1991-95.
``Within this category of spending, defense has declined in importance significantly and fairly steadily - from just over 10 percent of GDP in the first half of the 1950s to 4.4 percent in the first half of the 1990s. The other spending in this category - civilian spending outside of Social Security, health and interest - grew relative to the economy until the first half of the 1970s when it averaged 8 percent of GDP and then gradually declined to a shade below 6 percent of GDP in the first half of the 1990s.''
The message is clear. If government spending is going to be held steady, let alone reversed, a way to stabilize spending on Social Security and Medicare will have to be found. And that will get even harder in the future when an increasingly large fraction of the population will be over 65.
Last Wednesday night, both presidential candidates dodged the question by saying the answer is a nonpartisan commission that would craft solutions outside the charged atmosphere of politics. But partisan politicians with constituents who benefit from the programs will eventually have to cast the votes. Until voters stop complaining about big government while demanding the services that have caused it to grow larger, no resolution to the matter is likely. by CNB