Word: debt
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...government on Thursday announced a $51 million budget surplus. Yes, surplus. That bit of statistical good news ? which the government attributes to more efficient tax collection ? happened to coincide, as good news usually does, with decisions by the IMF and other creditors to extend a little leeway on debt repayment. "Different ministries are already quarreling about how real the surplus is because the budget was calculated at a much higher ruble-to-dollar rate," says TIME Moscow correspondent Andrew Meier. "There certainly are some strong economic indicators on the positive side ? exports are up, imports are down and industrial output...
...negotiation, both sides will be insisting all month that that?s OK with them. "Sometimes inaction is better than wrong action," said Trent Lott on Tuesday, sounding just like White House wonk Gene Sperling did on Sunday. If no deal gets done, this year?s surplus goes straight into debt repayment ? something nobody is against these days. And although Roth has a way with bipartisanship, a standoff seems the likeliest possibility. "Clinton has successfully sold his spending programs as more important than tax cuts," says Branegan. "The White House doesn?t feel it will have to give too much...
...they conclude this plan and send it to me," Clinton said Wednesday from his sunny pulpit in the Rose Garden, "I will have to veto it. I will refuse to sign any plan that signs away our commitment to America's future, Social Security, Medicare, paying down the debt...
...that sounds familiar, it?s supposed to ? and Clinton won?t be easing up anytime soon. The plan: Keep the public eye on debt-reduction (cue Larry Summers) and off what the White House likes to call "America?s future" or "needed programs." (In other words, new spending.) He has the luxury of pushing delayed gratification (leavened with a small tax cut of his own) at a time when even overtaxed Americans are feeling wealthier than ever before, and the luck to be up against a GOP plan whose sheer size makes his spending programs look like the lesser...
Although the national debt has always loomed like a monster, especially to Republicans, there are arguments not to kill it off entirely. If there were no debt to finance, for instance, the government wouldn't need to sell Treasury securities. Then the Federal Reserve could have a tough time managing liquidity, since its principal method of doing so involves buying and selling those securities...