The administration's assault on domestic spending and the threat to health care programs.

Abstract

The inevitable day of reckoning stemming from the federal government's 1981 decision to cut its revenue base sharply through tax reduction but continue spending at much higher levels has arrived. Faced with annual budget deficits of $225 billion or more unless it takes action, Congress has begun to grapple with spending issues that will pit guns against butter, young against old, and medical care providers against the government. The resolution of this struggle in the near term is likely to feature a government-wide freeze on spending increases with very few exceptions, elimination of some programs, and wholesale budget cuts in . . .