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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (18903)	9/6/1998 2:27:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 20981

Thanks for posting that superlative article.

To: Les H who wrote (18903)	9/7/1998 1:03:00 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

Hooray for the Government Surplus: Social Security Key to Surplus By The Associated Press The optimistic outlook for budget surpluses in coming years is based on forecasts that rely heavily on surpluses generated by Social Security. Right now, the government collects more in Social Security payroll taxes than needed to pay current benefits. The excess money is used to finance other government programs. Technically, the rest of the government borrows the Social Security surplus money and the Social Security trust fund receives a government IOU in return. For the current 1998 budget year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the budget will have a surplus of $63 billion. But the budget would actually be in deficit by $41 billion without the excess that Social Security is collecting, beyond what it needs to pay this year's benefits. Without the Social Security tax revenue, the $1.6 trillion in surpluses through 2008 shrink to a far smaller $169 billion. That is the reason total government debt will still go up in coming years, even though the overall budget is running surpluses. Debt held by the public -- through savings bonds and Treasury bills -- is going down. But the debt held by the Social Security trust fund -- as IOUs -- is still headed up. The Social Security trust fund will keep growing until the demands of retiring baby boomers surpass the annual payroll tax, now projected to occur in 2013. At that time, the government will turn to the trust fund to make up the shortfall between annual payroll tax collections and the needs of the Social Security retirees. But the trust fund is simply a bookkeeping entry consisting of all the IOUs the government has issued while borrowing the excess Social Security money. The government could deal with the Social Security shortfall starting in 2016 by borrowing directly from the public, or by cutting benefits to retirees or raising Social Security taxes.

To: Les H who wrote (18903)	9/7/1998 5:31:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

More from the international front: (no pun intended) The London Telegraph September 7, 1998 Doors closing on Clinton escape routes By Hugo Gurdon in Washington External Links Stormy weather [7 Sept '98] - Time Magazine White House braces for Starr report [6 Sept '98] - Washington Post Lott says Clinton censure unlikely [6 Sept '98] - Washington Post President returning to an altered, and colder, Washington [6 Sept '98] - Washington Post Scandal trailed president overseas [6 Sept '98] - Boston Globe 'The report' casts long shadow on Washington [6 Sept '98] - Los Angeles Times Clinton's resignation openly discussed by some Democrats [5 Sept '98] - Nando Times House leaders will discuss Starr report [4 Sept '98] - CNN All Politics Tide turning to hot water for Clinton [4 Sept '98] - Time Daily What we really can't forgive Clinton for: He got caught [4 Sept '98] - Salon The president's disappearing friends [29 Aug '98] - Economist An entangled web: Analysing online journalism's coverage of the White House scandal - Online Focus The Committee to Impeach the President SoWhat? gate - Conspiracy.com THE crisis threatening to bundle President Clinton out of office in disgrace accelerated yesterday amid signs of panic in the White House and defection by Democrats. Having hoped that his week in Russia, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic would shore up his leadership, Mr Clinton returned to Washington to discover that he is vastly weakened. White House aides said Mr Clinton was shattered by an attack last week by his ally, Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, which made him accept that the crisis was not manufactured by his enemies and not one he can escape through the usual mixture of denial, defiance and wounded pride. He is "quite disorientated" and "very stricken", one political adviser said, agreeing with those who thought his appearance in Dublin with the Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, was that of a haunted man. Jim Moran, a senior Democratic congressman, said yesterday that Mr Clinton would be "very fortunate" if he escaped with no more than formal censure by Congress. Mr Moran said: "I don't think that's an option, I think we are bound to go through impeachment proceedings. I don't know how he can ever recover." There were more body-blows to the President from Senator Patrick Moynihan, the senior Democrat who first broke ranks and in 1994 called for an independent counsel to investigate the Whitewater scandal. Yesterday, he said Henry Hyde and Orrin Hatch, the two Republicans who will lead Congress in deciding whether to impeach the President, were "first rate" men of "impeccable standing". This forestalls any effort by the White House to attack them as partisan. The doors on Mr Clinton's escape routes are being shut one after another and confidence and unity are bleeding away. Aides were reported as saying the mood in the executive mansion was "unbelievably depressing . . . somewhere close to despair". Like President Nixon a generation ago during Watergate, Mr Clinton is ever more isolated. One insider said: "Nobody is managing this crisis, the loop is down to two people, Bill and Hillary Clinton. They are doing it all themselves." The Governor of Maryland, Parris Glendening, cancelled a public appearance with Mr Clinton, and the President's one-time close aide, George Stephanopoulos, said: "The Democratic Party is running away from him." With the President's own party saying such things, there is now talk that Mr Clinton's end could come quickly. Mr Moran and others suggest that if the report due shortly from Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel, reveals not just sordid details of sex sessions in the Oval Office but also clear evidence that the President tried to cover it up, a delegation of Democrats will tell Mr Clinton to resign. Officials say the President recently made a catastrophic blunder that has had the unintended effect of forcing Mr Starr to include in his report all the grubbiest details of Mr Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. The error was to insist under oath and in his televised confession on Aug 17 that he had been "legally accurate" when he swore that he never had "sexual relations" with Miss Lewinsky. To enable Congress to decide the truth, Mr Starr is now obliged to explain exactly what Miss Lewinsky and Mr Clinton did with and to each other behind closed doors. There are rumours that the details are such that even hitherto-ardent supporters would be too embarrassed to defend. Speaking of the report, which could be delivered to Congress this week, one presidential adviser said: "It's going to be blistering. It is going to connect every dot and draw every negative inference." The crisis has moved into a phase that pundits say confirms the old Washington maxim that presidencies are destroyed not by misdeeds but by cover-ups. It is now being asked whether Mr Clinton's use of tax-financed government departments and aides to perpetuate a deliberate lie amounts to abuse of office. Trent Lott, majority leader in the Senate, said: "The answer could be yes. It looks very bad." Senator Lieberman's speech has destroyed the White House's strategy for the past eight months, which has been a combination of insisting that his relations with Miss Lewinsky were private and attacks on Mr Starr for being a biased, political enemy. telegraph.co.uk:80/