At Issue: How to Pay for New Federal Programs
The rccurri'ng question in last night's Pord-Carter debate was whether the several new spending programs Jimmy Carter lias endorsed could be put in place without increasing either taxes or the federal deficit.</br></br>President Ford says it cannot be done and should not even be attempted. He says there is already too much government spending.</br></br>That is the basic philosophical difference between the two men and their parties, though that difference can be overstated.</br></br>The Republicans, for example, while preaching hard against spending the last eight years, have presided over a doubling of the federal budget, from less than $200 billion when N'ixonÛ_"took office in 1989 to more than $400 billion in the fiscal year that will start Oct. 1, a week from today.</br></br>It is almost impossible to estimate with confidence what they might ultimately cost, partly because' Carter has refrained from describing them in final detail.