Cass Ballenger: “although I plan to vote for House Concurrent Resolution 84, which contains the balanced budget agreement of 1997, I want…”

“although I plan to vote for House Concurrent Resolution 84, which contains the balanced budget agreement of 1997, I want to express a few concerns with it and the other budget options. I believe the major short comings in the budget which was negotiated between congressional leaders and the White House are: The spending increases, which will cause the deficit to rise until 2001 at which time it will fall below the 1997 level of $67 billion; the savings are back loaded, so that they will not be realized until near the end of the agreement; the Clinton funding priorities which amount to an expansion of the Federal Government; and the net tax cuts of $85 billion amount to less than 1 percent of expected total tax collections of $9 trillion. Specifically, on the tax front, the latest predictions are that the budget agreement will result in a reduction of the Federal capital gains tax rate from the current 28 percent to as high as 21 percent, which may be targeted to a limited number of investments. My concerns over the small tax cuts which are to be expected from the budget agreement are the primary reason I also will support the budget substitute being offered by a Republican group, the Conservative Action Team [CAT's], to which I belong. This budget would freeze spending at the current levels while transferring the $109.3 billion this would save in nondefense, nontransportation discretionary spending to greater tax relief.”