Knight Ridder News Service
The following editorial appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on March 23:

The sky-high federal budget deficit is now the biggest threat facing the U.S. economy, according to a new survey from the National Association for Business Economics. The group’s conclusion echoed Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who this month also appropriately ranked the deficit as the worst economic problem.

Clearly, U.S. senators aren’t listening. In debating a budget plan this month, a majority voted to increase spending, expand tax cuts and reject a 1 percent reduction in projected spending on Medicaid. They added at least $79 billion over the next five years to the deficit, which reached a record $413 billion last year.

Senators also refused to restore rules that would have required the budgetary impact of spending increases or tax cuts to be offset by other spending reductions or tax increases. Those pay-as-you-go rules helped turn chronic budget deficits into surpluses in the 1990s.

In short, senators did almost everything they could to make a bad budget outlook worse.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson voted with fellow Democrats against the Medicaid cuts, but was among only five members of his party to vote to expand tax cuts. Such pandering might make political sense, but it shows an utter disregard for the imperative of cutting the deficit.

Senators now will try to reconcile their budget plan with a more fiscally responsible one from the House.

The House plan calls for less spending and lower tax cuts, and includes a reduction in spending for Medicaid. Here’s hoping the House prevails on each of those sticking points.

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