首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
If there was one thing Americans had a right to expect from Congress, it was a federal plan to help the elderly pay for prescrip
If there was one thing Americans had a right to expect from Congress, it was a federal plan to help the elderly pay for prescrip
admin
2011-02-11
87
问题
If there was one thing Americans had a right to expect from Congress, it was a federal plan to help the elderly pay for prescription drugs. It is a promise that has been made again and again—in particularly high decibels during the last presidential election. The House and Senate have passed bills, and although both are flawed, this page has urged Congress to finish work on them as a first step toward fulfilling this longstanding commitment.
Unfortunately, things have changed. The government cannot afford the program now. That is the fault of President Bush and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. They broke the bank with their enormous tax cuts. The country is facing the largest budget deficit in history, and there is no realistic plan for getting it under control. The limited version of a prescription drug benefit now being considered in Congress would cost about $ 400 billion over 10 years.
Older Americans had a right to expect that help, but they do not have a right to demand it, not when it would be financed by borrowing, with the hills to be paid by their grandchildren.
Mr. Bush, a specialist in pain avoidance, told people that they could have the programs they wanted-- prescription drugs for the elderly, better schools for children--along with modest tax cuts for the middle class and whoppers for the wealthy. When 9/11 occurred, the president simply added the war on terror, and then the war on Saddam Hussein, to the list. For all his talk about fiscal conservatism, Mr. Bush has never vetoed a spending bill, even the obscene $180 billion farm Subsidy program. To pay for it all, he simply increased the deficit.
Deficits in and of themselves are not necessarily a problem, but the current one is frightening for two reasons. One is its size: projected at well above $ 500 billion for next year, and approaching 5 percent of the gross domestic product. The other is its permanence. Cutting taxes temporarily to fight the recession made sense, but the Bush tax cuts are meant to be permanent---even though Congress gave most of them a phony 10-year expiration date in an attempt to mask their effect.
Dropping the proposal is, of course, just what a large chunk of the Republican Party was hoping for all along. For those Republicans, deficits are a useful tool to beat back popular entitlement programs—a "starve the beast" strategy, in the words of Ronald Reagan’s budget director. Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, rail against the deficit, but they are still pushing for the prescription drug plan. Like the tax-cutters, they are simply building up to some sort of financial Armageddon like soaring interest rates or a collapsing dollar—and hoping that blame will fall on the other party.
Our answer is different. The people have to decide whether they want tax cuts or programs like the prescription drug plan, It’s true that the tax-cut radicals will win this round. But then we will have an election.
According to the passage, ______will be the victim of the tax-cut.
选项
A、President Bush
B、the Republican
C、the Democrats
D、elderly Americans
答案
D
解析
按照本文的观点,______将成为减税的牺牲品。因减税导致预算赤字增加,老年人想得到处方药优惠的希望就会化为泡影。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/HweO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Thedeclineofcivilityandgoodmannersmaybeworryingpeoplemorethancrime,accordingtoGentilityRecalled,editedbyDigb
Socialchangeismorelikelytooccurinheterogeneoussocietiesthaninhomogeneousones,simplybecausetherearemorediverse
Changesinthewaypeoplelivebringaboutchangesinthejobsthattheydo.Moreandmorepeopleliveintownsandcitiesinst
AcupunctureRecently,acupuncturehasbecomea【1】_____wordinAmerica.【1】_____.AcupuncturewasperformedinChina
AcupunctureRecently,acupuncturehasbecomea【1】_____wordinAmerica.【1】_____.AcupuncturewasperformedinChina
WHYSHOULDanyonebuythelatestvolumeintheever-expandingDictionaryofNationalBiography?Idonotmeanthatitisbad,as
LandUseAproblemrelatedtothecompetitionforlanduseiswhethercropsshouldbeusedtoproducefoodorfuel.【1】_____
A、overdrawanaccount.B、borrowfromherparents.C、workovertime.D、spendhersavings.A本题考查推测能力。对话快结束时,Victoria讲到她去见了银行经理,这个经
Values,Characteristics,PersonalHabitsandCourtesiesofAmericansAlthoughAmericanshategeneralizationsandholdaneth
Usingnewlyobtainedpetroleumindustrydata,scientistshaveidentifiedapreviouslyunknownearthquakefaultthatliesundert
随机试题
在体内具有促进胃肠道蠕动、防止便秘作用的是________。
A.洗手B.戴手套C.戴口罩、护目镜D.穿隔离衣E.戴口罩进入隔离室时应
监理的基本工作是“三控”、“两管”、“一协调”,“两管”是指监理活动中的()。
项目组织结构中应有专门的工作部门和()资格的专人负责进度控制工作。
某办公大楼在保修期间出现外墙裂缝,经查是由于设计缺陷造成,原施工单位进行了维修,之后应向()主张维修费用。
(操作员:赵主管;账套:301账套;操作日期:2015年1月31日)选择单据号为0003(单据类型为应收借项)的应收单,生成凭证。
容易犯错误是我们人类无法避免的一个弱点,不管科技发展到什么程度,事故总是会在不经意间发生。懂得这个道理,我们就可以“__________”,只有这样,或许我们才能__________应对一切可能出现的麻烦。填入画横线部分最恰当的一项是:
当今碳循环科学面临的最大问题,就是在洲际、区域和局部尺度上无法观测获取量化的、精度高的碳通量(单位面积上、单位时间内碳含量的变化)信息。下列有关说法中,错误的是()。
村民委员会和居民委员会的法律性质是______。
中共二大的内容包括()
最新回复
(
0
)