Published May 1985 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd The Federal Budget: A Blueprint for the Future A nation's budget is more than just a bookkeeper's balance sheet. It is also a blueprint for the future. That is why, during the recent Senate debate on the federal budget, I offered a budget alternative to the White House-backed package. My budget was designed to look to the future by emphasizing economic growth and competitiveness, and fairness and equity. For example, my plan: • restored full funding for federal cost-of -living adjustments (COLAs), including Social Security; Black Lung benefits; veterans pensions, disability, and health care programs, civilian and military retirement; • restored funding for education; for scientific and medical research; for job training, including Job Corps, and for export promotion; • restored funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission, Amtrak, Economic Development Administration; Urban Development Action Grants, mass transit, and urban infrastructure programs; • restored funding for Medicare, and eliminated out-of-pocket cost increases in premiums for Medicare recipients that the Administration was seeking; and • reduced foreign aid, except to Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Turkey. To enhance our national security in light of the constant Soviet military buildup, while at the same time refusing to condone Pentagon waste, my proposal placed a 1-percent ceiling on real growth in fiscal 1986 and 3 percent for the next two years. The programs that I focused on in my budget are important, not just to West Virginians but also to millions of people throughout America. These programs are the building blocks of our future. My budget plan would have reduced the deficit over the next three years by $303 billion, an $8 billion deeper cut than the Administration plan, which called for $295 billion in deficit reductions. My proposal was voted down, largely along party lines, and the White House budget passed by the barest of margins, on a 50 to 49 vote. But I think my package made an important point, that the federal deficit can be reduced without balancing the budget on the backs of our elderly, our children, or our future. The focus of the budget debate now moves to the House of Representatives; undoubtedly there will be differences between the House and the Senate that will have to be resolved. I hope, when that time comes, that concern for the future will prevail. May 15, 1985