Tuesday February 8, 2000
President Clinton's 2001 Raid on
the U.S. Treasury at a Glance
By Howard Hobbs, Reagan Library Public Affairs Institute
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton on Monday proposed wildly expanded federal spending that would heat up the economy to the boiling point. An expansive university research increase of 8 percent, to $17.8 billion, was the center piece of the biggest proposed giveaway of tax money in the history of the U.S.
So much for "Saving Social Security First!" The announcement of the details had already leaked out by the time Monday's announcement from the White House to increase financing for the National Institutes of Health by 5.6 percent, to $18.813 billion, and to give the National Science Foundation its largest budget increase ever. The N.S.F.'s budget would rise by 17 percent over the 2000 fiscal year, to $4.572 billion.
The Agriculture Department's budget for research, education, and economic analysis would grow by 3 percent, to $2.208 million. And the Defense Department, spending on basic research would be boosted by 4 percent, to $1.217 billion, but applied research would dip, to $3.144 billion.
The Clinton administration on Monday promised increases of 35 percent for research on information technology and atomic scale research in lightweight materials, smaller transistors and memory chips. He also included billions for cancer research.
The last time Mr. Clinton tried to move in the direction of huge government spending programs like these for the 1999 and 2000 fiscal years, he said he would pay for the spending by raising taxes on tobacco to help finance increased spending on scientific research. Republican leaders in Congress had rejected that tax increase plan.
To get around that difficulty, administration officials are now telling the public that surplus tax revenues already collected could justify increased spending. The fiscal 2001 budget Clinton submitted Monday includes $351 billion over 10 years in tax relief geared toward lower- and middle-class people, although the net tax cut falls to only $170 billion over the decade once an accompanying $181 billion in tax increases
on cigarettes, corporations and others are factored in.
Republicans want much larger tax cuts, to come only from the budget surplus. They plan to start implementing that this week with House votes on a 10-year, $182 billion bill to cut income taxes for millions of married couples, including those who pay more tax than if they were single.
It is the first of several tax-cut measures likely to move in the GOP-led Congress this year, each one a part of a 10-year, $792 billion tax cut Clinton vetoed last summer.
| ReaganLibrary.Net |
Dollars in millions |
|
| Public Affairs Institute |
Fiscal 2000
estimate |
Fiscal 2001
request |
Percent
change |
| EDUCATION DEPARTMENT |
| Pell Grants |
$7,640.0 |
$8,356.0 |
+9% |
| Supplemental Grants |
$631.0 |
$691.0 |
+10% |
| Work-Study |
$934.0 |
$1,011.0 |
+8% |
| Perkins Loans |
$130.0 |
$160.0 |
+23% |
| Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership |
$40.0 |
$40.0 |
+0% |
| Federal Administration Direct Loan Program |
$735.0 |
$770.0 |
+5% |
| Aid to historically black colleges |
$179.8 |
$209.0 |
+16% |
| Aid to Hispanic-serving institutions |
$42.3 |
$62.5 |
+48% |
| Tech-prep education |
$106.0 |
$306.0 |
+189% |
| TRIO programs for disadvantaged students* |
$645.0 |
$725.0 |
+12% |
| Education research |
$168.6 |
$198.6 |
+18% |
| Education statistics |
$68.0 |
$84.0 |
+24% |
| Office for Civil Rights |
$71.2 |
$76.0 |
+7% |
| Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education |
$74.2 |
$31.2 |
-58% |
| Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships |
$23.3 |
$30.0 |
+29% |
| GEAR UP |
$200.0 |
$325.0 |
+63% |
| Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants |
$98.0 |
$98.0 |
+0% |
| OTHER AGENCIES |
| National Institutes of Health |
$17,849.2 |
$18,849.2 |
+6% |
| National Science Foundation: research |
$2,958.0 |
$3,541.0 |
+20% |
| National Science Foundation: education |
$725.0 |
$760.0 |
+5% |
| Agriculture Department: cooperative extension |
$424.0 |
$428.0 |
+1% |
| Agriculture Department: cooperative research |
$481.0 |
$461.0 |
-4% |
| Energy Department: high-energy and nuclear physics |
$1,059.6 |
$1,084.6 |
+2% |
| Energy Department: basic energy sciences |
$779.4 |
$1,015.8 |
+30% |
| Defense Department: basic research |
$1,167.0 |
$1,217.0 |
+4% |
| Defense Department: applied research |
$3,415.0 |
$3,144.0 |
-8% |
| National Endowment for the Humanities |
$115.3 |
$150.0 |
+30% |
| National Endowment for the Arts |
$97.6 |
$150.0 |
+54% |
| AmeriCorps |
$473.3 |
$563.3 |
+19% |
| * Editor's Note: Includes $35-million
for proposed College Completion Challenge Grants according to White House spokesperson.
|
Letter to the Editor
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