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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (681596)	5/5/2005 2:02:22 PM
From: Wayners	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

So the President should submit a budget with zero discretionary spending? Is that even reasonable? Clinton never did that and during a booming econonmy with massive growth rates, he still ran up the deficit from 4 to 6 trillion.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (681596)	5/5/2005 3:39:55 PM
From: DizzyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Tax Receipts Exceed Treasury Predictions Early Surge Lowers Deficit Projections By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 5, 2005; Page E01 After three years of rising federal budget deficits, a surge of April tax receipts brought unexpected good news to fiscal policymakers -- the tide of government red ink appears to be receding. The Treasury Department this week reported there would be a $54 billion swing from projected deficit to surplus in the April-to-June quarter, after an unanticipated gush of tax payments poured into the Treasury before the April 15 deadline. That prompted private forecasters to lower their deficit projections for the fiscal year that ends in September. Graphic Deficit Projection More News From The Post's Print Edition * All of Today's Business Articles * Today's Business Front Image More on washingtonpost.com * Markets News and Research * Technology Section Free E-mail Newsletters * TechNews Daily Report See a Sample \| Sign Up Now * Personal Finance See a Sample \| Sign Up Now * Personal Tech See a Sample \| Sign Up Now Budget analysts inside and outside the government said the positive turn is likely to be short-lived. Indeed, after a four-year absence, the Treasury Department announced yesterday it is considering reissuing its 30-year Treasury bond to help finance long-term government debt, jolting the bond markets and pushing down the price of existing 30-year securities. But in the short term, many forecasters said the budget deficit appears to have crested. "I think it has turned the corner," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, the credit rating agency. "My guess is 2004 will have been the worst year." For that fiscal year, the government recorded a $412 billion deficit, the largest ever in nominal dollar terms, although not as large as some of the deficits of the 1980s when measured against the size of the economy. The 2004 mark was up from 2003's $378 billion deficit, which topped 2002's $158 billion deficit. In January, Bush administration officials projected that the streak would continue, with a deficit of $427 billion for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. But that estimate was widely regarded as inflated and many forecasters believed the total would be more like $400 billion. April, however, turned out to be a far better month than anticipated. Taxpayers were confronted with unexpected tax bills, many from capital gains and the alternative minimum tax, a parallel income tax system designed to hit the rich but that is increasingly pinching the middle class. The Treasury announced this week that it will repay $42 billion in federal debt in the third April-to-June quarter, instead of borrowing $12 billion. Wall Street analysts reduced their deficit forecasts this week, from around $400 billion to around $370 billion. In nominal dollar terms, that would still be the third-highest deficit on record. Even measured against the size of the economy, "it's still a high number," said Brian Bethune, director of financial economics at Global Insight Inc., a Massachusetts forecasting firm. "It needs to come down." One factor should help in the short term: Seven months into the fiscal year, Congress is only now passing the $82 billion emergency war spending bill for fiscal 2005, which means that much of the money will be spent in 2006. That should reduce the 2005 deficit while bringing down war costs next year. Wyss said the deficit should continue to fall in 2006 and 2007. "A month ago, I would have told you the budget numbers were on track for $400 billion. To get an adjustment this quickly would suggest a huge surprise," said Edward F. McKelvey, an economist and federal budget analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co. Few economists say the U.S. government is out of the woods. One of the reasons for the turnaround, the alternative minimum tax, should be reduced or eliminated before it starts impinging on economic growth, Bethune said. washingtonpost.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (681596)	5/6/2005 12:45:43 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 769667

Wash. Mayor Denies Molesting Boys in '70s By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 12:17 a.m. ET SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) -- Mayor James E. West, a Republican foe of gay rights, was accused in a newspaper story Thursday of molesting two boys decades ago and was caught by the paper using the trappings of his office to try to court a young man on a gay online chat room. West on Thursday denied the molestation allegations, but acknowledged he ''had relations with adult men.'' He admitted offering autographed sports memorabilia and a possible City Hall internship to what he thought was an 18-year-old man on the Web site Gay.com. The man was actually a private computer expert hired by The Spokesman-Review as part of a journalism sting operation. West, 54, a former Boy Scout leader and Army paratrooper who was married briefly in the 1990s, denied that the online offers constituted abuse of his office, and he said he would serve out the more than three years remaining in his term. ''I am a law-abiding citizen,'' West said during a brief news conference. He took no questions. The Spokesman-Review ran interviews Thursday with two men who allege West molested them decades ago when they were Boy Scouts and the mayor was a troop leader and sheriff's deputy. Both men have criminal records because of drug problems. ''I categorically deny allegations about incidents that supposedly occurred 24 years ago as alleged by two convicted felons and about which I have no knowledge,'' West said. No criminal investigations are under way, according to sheriff and police departments, which said the statute of limitations for any charges has run out. West, a conservative with an abrasive style and a fierce temper, rose to become majority leader of the state Senate during a two-decade legislative career. He consistently opposed efforts to expand civil rights protections for gays and voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, a ban on gay marriage, in 1998. During a 1990 hearing on AIDS education, West proposed that teen sex be criminalized. In 1990, he proposed marriage from the floor of the Senate to Ginger Marshall while she was visiting the Capitol. Their marriage ended five years later. The newspaper said its investigation of West arose out of tips received in 2002 during its investigations of sexual abuse of children by priests. The newspaper hired a computer expert to create a fictitious identity as an 18-year-old boy to chat with West, who used the online aliases ''Cobra82nd'' and ''RightBi-Guy'' to chat on the Web site. West was in the Army's 82nd Airborne. West said he would not characterize himself as gay. As for his visits to the Gay.com Web site, he told the newspaper: ''I can't tell you why I go there, to tell you the truth ... curiosity, confused, whatever, I don't know.'' Members of Spokane's gay community said there had long been rumors that West was not exclusively heterosexual, and that it was no surprise that he opposed issues favored by gays. ''Historically, it's true of a lot of elected officials who will camouflage that by going to the other extreme,'' said Kevan Gardner of the Pride Foundation, a gay organization. ''It's just unfortunate that he's been such an enemy to our community and we find out he's possibly a member of our community.'' The molestation accusations came in a deposition for a lawsuit against Spokane County by Robert J. Galliher, 36, of Seattle, and other men who claim they were molested by another sheriff's deputy at the time, David Hahn. West was not named as a defendant and said he was unaware of the deposition. In interviews with the newspaper, Galliher and a second man, Michael G. Grant Jr., 31, said they were introduced to West by Hahn in the late 1970s or early '80s, when the two sheriff's deputies were close friends and leaders of a Boy Scout troop. Hahn committed suicide in 1981 after being publicly accused of molesting boys. Steve Smith, editor of The Spokesman-Review, told The Associated Press that the newspaper was reluctant to hire the computer expert but felt it was necessary because of West's possible abuse of office and the potential for harm to young people. The expert was hired to corroborate accounts from several individuals who said they had had online relationships with West, including at least one teen who said the contact led to consensual sex, the newspaper said. Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, a think tank for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla., said the newspaper's decision appeared to be appropriate. ''The issue is deception,'' said McBride, a former Spokesman-Review reporter. ''As a reporter, you don't pretend to be somebody else. Where this gets really fuzzy is on the Internet, where everybody uses anonymity. I don't believe reporters should refrain from going into anonymous communities.''

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (681596)	5/6/2005 8:33:23 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 769667

+DJ US April Nonfarm Payrolls +274K; Consensus +175K 05/06/2005 Dow Jones News Services (Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US April Unemployment Rate 5.2%; Consensus 5.2% (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US April Average Hourly Earnings Up $0.05 To $16.00 (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US Manufacturing Payrolls -6K Svc-Producing +229K (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US April Overall Workweek Up 0.2 Hour to 33.9 Hours (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US March Payrolls Revised To +146K From +110K (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US March Unemployment Rate Unrevised At 5.2% (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (681596)	5/6/2005 8:34:08 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 769667

DJ US April Unemployment Rate 5.2%; Consensus 5.2% (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US April Average Hourly Earnings Up $0.05 To $16.00 (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US Manufacturing Payrolls -6K Svc-Producing +229K (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US April Overall Workweek Up 0.2 Hour to 33.9 Hours (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US March Payrolls Revised To +146K From +110K (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET DJ US March Unemployment Rate Unrevised At 5.2% (MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0829ET =DJ Data Snap:US April Job Growth Exceeds Wall St Forecast =====================================================! April Employment Report !Consensus: ! April Mar !Payrolls +175K! Payrolls +274K +146K ! ! Unemployment Rate 5.2% 5.2% !Actual: +274K ! Hourly Earnings $16.00 $15.95 ! ! ===================================================== By Joseph Rebello and Paulette Chu Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. employers created far more jobs in April than Wall Street expected, suggesting the economy may be regaining speed after hitting a "soft patch" in the first three months of the year. Non-farm payrolls grew by a robust 274,000 last month - nearly a 100,000 more than financial markets expected, the Labor Department said Friday. The department also said employers created 93,000 more non-farm jobs in March and February, raising the monthly average for the year so far to a healthy 211,000. Still, the unemployment rate, which is derived from a survey of households rather than employers, held steady at 5.2% in April. Inflation pressures remained mild: average hourly earnings rose five cents, or 0.3%. to $16.00. Wall Street had expected much more moderate job growth. The average forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC had called for a 175,000 increase in payrolls, a 5.2% unemployment rate, and a 0.2% wage increase. The report validated Fed's view that high oil prices - which hit a record high of about $58 a barrel in early April - haven't taken a serious toll on the economy. The U.S. central bank on Tuesday raised its key interest rate for the eighth time in 10 months and indicated it aims to keep raising the rate in quarter-percentage-point increments every six to eight weeks. "The solid pace of spending growth has slowed somewhat, partly in response to the earlier increases in energy prices," Fed policymakers said in a statement. Still, they said, "labor market conditions...apparently continue to improve gradually," and "pressures on inflation have picked up." Under the circumstances, analysts say, the Fed is likely to raise its key federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point at each of its next two meetings of top policymakers. That would put the rate at 3.5% by the end of August. After that, analysts say, interest-rate increases could become less frequent unless inflation accelerates further. In its report Friday, the Labor Department revised its estimates of job growth for February and March, saying employers added 300,000 jobs in February and 146,000 in March. Previous estimates had shown a 243,000 increase in February and a 110,000 increase in March. The report showed job growth in most major categories of employment except manufacturing, which cut 6,000 jobs. The service-producing industry added 229,000, nearly twice as many as in March. Within that category, the leisure and hospitality industry added 58,000 jobs - the biggest increase in more than a year. The construction industry added 47,000 jobs, more than the 29,000 gain recorded in March. Government jobs increased by 18,000 after declining by 1,000 in March. The average work week grew for the first time in seven months, climbing 12 minutes to 33.9 hours. In year-on-year terms, average hourly earnings were up 2.7% in April. -By Joseph Rebello and Paulette Chu; 202-862-9279; joseph.rebello@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires 05-06-05 0832ET

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (681596)	5/6/2005 8:51:05 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 769667

Good News - U.S. April nonfarm payrolls up 274,000 By Rex Nutting WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. labor market strengthened in April, as the U.S. economy gained a larger-than-expected 274,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate remained at 5.2%, while average hourly wages rose by 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $16. Hourly wages are up 2.7% in the past year The average workweek increased by two-tenths of an hour to 33.9 hours, the highest since July 2001. Total hours worked in the economy increased by 0.9%. The report was much stronger than anticipated on Wall Street. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were looking for payroll gains of about 194,000. Other surveys were looking for around 175,000 jobs, and so-called whisper numbers were rumoring numbers closer to 100,000.