Ehrlich on Washington column, February 1, 1999

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 315 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of February 1, 1999 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. POLITICS OF PLENTY Last week, President Clinton took the first step in the annual federal budget process by unveiling his $ 1 .77 trillion budget for 2000. The President has proposed some promising ideas on which I believe we can work together to achieve for America. During the past few years the Congress and the President worked together to make some tough choices to reduce the deficit and, ultimately, to achieve the first balanced budget and federal surplus in over thirty years. It is, however, disappointing to start a new year with another large “tax-and-spend” budget. The Congress is not bound to the President’s budget, but it will spend the next few months considering the President’s initiatives as it formulates its own budget resolution. Accordingly, Congress’s budget resolution describes our view for America. The Congress will work together with President Clinton to responsibly address what we agree to be America’s most serious long-term challenges: saving Social Security and Medicare, sending more dollars to our classrooms, boosting our national defense, protecting the environment, and ensuring affordable health care. While I favor broad-based tax relief, the budget blueprint provides a number of tax breaks I support, including a $1,000 tax credit for long-term care costs which the Republicans first proposed in 1995. The President has also proposed an additional $320 million for federal biomedical research, namely the National Institutes of Health. I believe we can do better and make a national commitment to finding cures for devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. As a result of the Republican 1997 Balanced Budget resolution, the country is currently facing a future of budget surpluses, and not federal deficits. This historic agreement established caps on how much the federal government spends on programs such as housing, defense,