经济学人下载:预算,真正的战斗打响了

Indeed, the Ryan budget contains many affronts to Democrats, from repealing their prized health-care reform to instituting over the long run cuts to discretionary spending far deeper than those the Democrats are so doggedly resisting in the row about this year’s budget. So it will never get through the Senate, and if it did, it would be vetoed by Mr Obama.

实际上，瑞恩先生的预算暗含公开侮辱民主党之意，从废止民主党人引以为豪的医疗改革方案，到制定长期削减支出方案，再到大肆挥霍，莫不如是。民主党人挥霍严重程度远超民主党人承受程度——民主党人在本年度财政预算问题上一直强烈反抗大肆挥霍。所以该议案定遭参议院否决，如果确实通过，那奥巴马总统也会否决该议案。

Not all of Congress, however, has declared total partisan war. Three Democrats and three Republicans in the Senate, nicknamed the “Gang of Six”, continue to discuss a budget deal based on the magic formula of cutting spending on entitlements as well as discretionary items while raising revenue in the guise of tax reform. The letter the 64 senators sent to Mr Obama explicitly endorsed this approach, despite the flak the gang’s Republicans have received for so much as mentioning the idea of raising government revenue.

然而并不是国会所有成员都参加了这场党派之战。被昵称为“六人帮”的三位民主党人士和三位共和党人士仍在商讨预算方案，企图假借税制改革之外衣增加财政收入，同时削减津贴支出及自由支配项目支出。64位参议院致奥巴马总统的信明确支持此方法，尽管“六人帮”中的共和党人因提倡增加政府收入而遭到猛烈抨击。

Alas, there is no guarantee that their efforts will bear fruit. The rancour of the debate about this year’s budget has done little to calm tempers in Congress. Moreover, there are more nerve-racking deadlines to come. By May 16th at the latest, the Treasury says, America’s debt will have reached the limit set on it by Congress. Given the impossibility of erasing the deficit by then, the ceiling will have to be lifted. But many Republicans have said they will not do so unless Democrats endorse cuts of a much greater magnitude than the ones they were resisting this week. The fiscal melodrama has a few more weeks to run before its electrifying final act.

遗憾的是，他们的努力并并不一定会开花结果。因本年度财政预算进行的辩论引发的怨恨并未平息国会内的愤懑。此外，伤脑筋的截止日期接踵而至。财政部表示，最早到5月16日，美国的债务就可能达到国会设定的上限。到那时赤字仍无望消除，因此债务上限就不得不提高。但是诸多共和党人士表示他们不会这样做，除非民主党人支持的支出削减方案比本周共和党人所反对的方案幅度更大。在决案震撼出炉之前，这场财政闹剧还会持续几周。