Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
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decreasing benefits, increasing taxes, “or both.”
With Medicaid not the only government program facing funding problems, Mr. Slaughter suggested that the question which needs to be isked is, “Is this the time to keep milding the debt?” Answering his >wn query, he said that the problem acing the Congress is that “each >erson has a different set of prioriies.”
Vice President Bush, the Republican nominee for President, favors what he calls a “flexible-freeze” in spending, which Rep. Slaughter explained means that some programs would be favored over others.
That contrasts, he said, with the automatic cuts required by the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings balanced budget law enacted by Congress. Under that legislation, if there is no agreement reached by Congress about what cuts will be made to reach each year’s target, the law requires equal reductions in all programs, a so-called across-the-board reduction.
“I don’t like it,” he said, “nobody does. But if Congress can’t agree, there ought to be some mechanism for reductions.”
Addressing the still-unfolding Pentagon procurement difficulties, Congressman Slaughter said that a final assessment of the scandal must wait until the investigations and Congressional hearings are completed. He noted that “checks and balances within the Department of Defense” itself were responsible for ferreting out some of the abuses.
“In an organization as big as the United States government, frequently you are going to have misuse of public money. And those people should be prosecuted,” Rep. Slaughter stressed.
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