Government Spending

President Obama called for more spending on community colleges, job training, infrastructure, and research and development as he touted an election-year budget that seemed to complete his shift in focus from budget cutting to job creation. Arguing that the country can't "cut our way to growth," Obama delivered a $3.8-trillion budget plan to Congress and blew through a promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. Obama's budget projects a $1.3-trillion deficit in fiscal year 2012 and $901 billion in 2013, both over the $700 billion that would have made good on his pledge.

Re "To create jobs, U.S. must spend," Opinion, April 5 Dimitri B. Papadimitriou assumes that government spending creates growth. It may create growth in the drone-building industry or in public pensions, but we have to question whether that's good for the economy. Papadimitriou compares adding to our deficit to the hopeful action of a private borrower getting a home mortgage. There are important differences. A home buyer can refinance only a few times, while the government can add debt endlessly.

After a short-lived experiment in running their own police force, Hawaiian Gardens officials want to rehire the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to protect their one-square-mile community in order to trim costs. There's just one problem. City officials are hoping the Sheriff's Department will retain the Hawaiian Gardens officers, many of them popular fixtures in the community.

My colleague Alexandra LeTellier gave two thumbs down earlier today to a new, Republican National Committee-bankrolled study  on how to improve the party's appeal to, umm, everyone who isn't an older white guy. She's clearly in the RNC's target, being a) female, and b) not yet ossified. But she's not buying what the party leadership is selling. Here's the GOP's problem in a nutshell: It sees a messaging problem, but its critics see a positioning problem. When the economy is slow, people want their policymakers to do something to help the country.

Do your letter writers really believe that the money spent on space exploration or the arts or the Bosnian peace intervention or any government spending, were it not spent on that particular item, would therefore go to feeding, educating or otherwise assisting the poor and the diseased? Don't they know the savings would merely go to lowering the taxes for the rich? MURRAY LAMISHAW Laguna Hills

Government spending for law enforcement increased by 75% from 1979 to 1985 to $45.6 billion, while spending for all government services rose 90% in that time, according to a federal study issued Sunday. In addition, the study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that just 2.9% of total government spending financed law enforcement activities in 1985.

Recommendations for cutting federal government spending, including the proposed elimination of some military bases in Southern California, will be discussed by the featured speaker at the Feb. 1 meeting of the World Affairs Council of Orange County. George S. Goldberger, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, will speak at the session, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Anaheim Marriott hotel.

At the halfway point in its six-year term, the government of President Miguel de la Madrid has undertaken a piecemeal effort to strengthen the floundering Mexican economy. Some of the steps taken recently seem to be aimed at opening the economy to greater competition and less government domination. Others are attempts to correct mistakes made by the government in 1984, mistakes that have stimulated the country's crippling inflation.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke delivered a stern warning to Congress on Thursday to address the national debt, saying spiraling government spending could lead to a "vicious cycle" of even bigger federal budget deficits. "The longer we wait, the more severe, the more draconian, the more difficult the objectives are going to be" in responding to the crisis, he said. "The right time to start was about 10 years ago." Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.

On Feb. 18, 1981, in a huge auditorium jammed with television cameras and White House officials, then-Budget Director David A. Stockman unveiled the first spending plan of the new Republican era, promising to cut taxes, increase defense outlays and--by cutting overall spending--close the federal deficit by 1984. Twelve years later, in a small room with a table full of reporters and minimal fanfare, Stockman's successor, Richard G.

BEIJING -- The Chinese government pledged on Sunday a moratorium on new government offices and guesthouses along with a reduction in government payrolls and official cars. The newly installed premier, Li Keqiang, made the promise in his debut speech at the closing news conference of the National People's Congress in Beijing. "The central government will lead by example and lower levels will follow suit," Li told assembled reporters inside the imposing Great Hall of the People on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Piece by piece, evidence has begun to accumulate that after four years of lackluster performance, the U.S. economy is on track for stronger growth than many people had expected. The latest support for that view comes from data on consumer spending, which grew at a surprisingly quick pace in February, pushed upward by robust demand for cars and building materials. The report this week from the Commerce Department came just a few days after employment figures showed faster improvement than most economists had projected, in large part because of the strong rebound of the market for housing.

WASHINGTON - When it comes to the nation's debt, payback time might be here. Years of low tax rates and rising federal spending, amplified by the devastating economic effect of the Great Recession, have driven the U.S. borrowing tab to more than $16 trillion from less than $1 trillion in 1981. Deficit reduction has become the dominant issue in Washington. The first major tax increase since 1993 took place last month. And large automatic spending cuts - $1.2 trillion over the next decade - are set to kick in Friday.

WASHINGTON - As Congress again veers close to the nation's debt limit, a leading credit rating company is delivering a stark warning: Don't wait until the last minute. Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that the U.S. could lose its AAA credit rating if lawmakers don't raise the $16.4-trillion debt limit in a "timely manner" as a possible default looms as early as mid-February. Congressional Republicans want major government spending cuts in exchange for another debt-limit increase. But Fitch, one of three major credit-rating companies, said the debt limit should not be used as leverage.

Public schools California's K-12 schools are among the biggest winners in the governor's budget, with a proposed funding increase of $2.7 billion. The money would come with plans to shift some of it away from wealthy suburban districts so it can be spent on schools that serve poor students and non-English speakers. But those receiving less money than in the past would have more flexibility in spending it, because Gov. Jerry Brown's plan would eliminate dozens of program requirements set by Sacramento.

A new Census Bureau report confirms that the slowly rising tide of the U.S. economy hasn't lifted all boats. The 20% of Americans with the highest incomes captured an even larger share of the earnings in 2011, while the rest collected the same share or less. The widening income inequality is disturbing, but as the report shows, things could have been considerably worse. Without such safety net programs as unemployment benefits and food stamps, millions more families would have fallen into poverty.

More than 500 people gathered in Griffith Park on Sunday to demand less government spending and voice their opposition to any government-run healthcare plan. The rally was the latest stop on a national tour -- dubbed the Tea Party Express II -- that began Sunday morning in San Diego and plans to visit 38 cities in 19 days. Organizers are calling the tour a "Countdown to Judgment Day" for elected officials, timing it to one year before the 2010 congressional elections. Sal Russo, chief strategist for the Tea Party Express II, said that his group is calling on politicians to "clean up their act" and stop voting for deficit-increasing measures.

? U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn's bitter opposition to government spending appears to be striking a chord with Oklahoma voters, who reelected the Republican to what he says will be his last term. The Muskogee physician beat an underfunded Democratic candidate and two independents Tuesday. Coburn rode a Republican wave into the U.S. House in 1994, then served six years in Congress before returning to his medical practice. He has described himself as a "part-time lawmaker" and has promised to serve only two terms in the Senate.

WASHINGTON -- GOP congressional leaders launched an orchestrated round of attacks on President Obama' s assessment that private companies are doing "fine" in the sluggish economy, essentially ridiculing the White House's assertion that it is the public sector that needs government support to keep teachers, firefighters and other employees on the job. "Mr. President, take it from me, the private sector is not doing fine," House Speaker John A....

LONDON — Irish voters approved a European treaty to keep government spending in check, offering a small victory Friday to the region's leaders as they battle a worsening debt and banking crisis that has raised fear for the survival of the euro. A referendum to adopt the fiscal pact won by a strong margin, 60.3% to 39.7%, though only about half of Ireland's voters cast ballots Thursday. Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who campaigned hard for the "yes" side, hailed the result as a signal that his bailed-out nation "is serious about overcoming its economic challenges.