Capital Scene

WHEN President Clinton announced that the budget deal had “the largest increase in education funding in thirty years” and included an expansion of government health benefits that represented “a major breakthrough in our efforts to move toward coverage for all Americans,” I consoled myself by recalling his reputation for truthfulness. Unfortunately, this time the President was being scrupulously honest about the Republican concessions he had won in the budget agreement.

The truth is that a strong economy has Washington awash in revenues that permit government to grow on its “glide path to a zero deficit”; and so Republicans have broken faith with their commitment to shrink the federal behemoth.

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Kate O'Beirne

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WHEN President Clinton announced that the budget deal had “the largest increase in education funding in thirty years” and included an expansion of government health benefits that represented “a major breakthrough in our efforts to move toward coverage for all Americans,” I consoled myself by recalling his reputation for truthfulness. Unfortunately, this time the President was being scrupulously honest about the Republican concessions he had won in the budget agreement.

The truth is that a strong economy has Washington awash in revenues that permit government to grow on its “glide path to a zero deficit”; and so Republicans have broken faith with their commitment to shrink the federal behemoth.