Perspective What Congress won't do
10/17/1999 The Star-Ledger Newark, NJ FINAL 006 (c) 1999. The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved.
The Republican Congress is finding it difficult to achieve their stated targets for spending and budget balance.
In a search for savings, they are proposing a delay in payments of the Earned Income Tax Credit due under current law to low-wage taxpayers. For the reader's enlightenment, we detail assorted savings measures that the GOP has rejected.
1. Delay income tax refunds to wealthy Americans.
2. Delay flood insurance payments to owners of second homes destroyed by Hurricane Floyd.
3. Cancel congressional pay raise. go from biweekly to monthly salary payments. reduce base salary and institute productivity incentive bonuses.
4. Delay payments to corporations that earned billions in profits but qualify for corporate income tax refunds.
5. Push September 2000 congressional pay to first month of Fiscal Year 2001.
6. Apply reduced "diet COLA" cost-of-living adjustment to congressional pensions.
7. Replace Congress health insurance benefits with voucher redeemable at HMO. sell Walter Reed Hospital to Kaiser Permanente.
8. Limit reimbursable accommodation expenses for Congress to Motel 6 and Econolodge.
9. Contract out operations of Senate cafeteria. replace home-made bean soup with generic version from Shoppers Food Warehouse.
10. Three words: cut corporate welfare.
Compiled by Max B. Sawicky, an economist at The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank