Union leaders argue that pension shortfalls account for a proportionally tiny portion of governments' financial problems and, by all accounts, there are plenty of parties to blame for the growth in payrolls and obligations.
In Western countries, these domestic challenges will occupy a substantial portion of governments' political 'bandwidth', reducing their capacity –and appetite– for military interventions abroad that do not enjoy majority support among the public.
A large portion of government debt consists of bonds with specific maturities of five years to 99 years or more.
There is no logical reason that permission should exclude the relatively small portion of government benefits that happen to come in the form of a check.
A substantial portion of government expenditure (e.g., spending on public health programs) is also considered to be consumption expenditure, as it provides a service that consumers value.
Should individuals be able to give up some portion of government-promised benefits in the future to have some portion of current taxes diverted into an account where they can make the investment decisions and potentially diversify their risk?
Vouchers transfer authority over the use of a portion of government education funds from bureaucrats to parents, who then may use their grants to send their children to the schools, secular or religious, they believe will best educate their kids.
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON about George W. Bush's tax cut… Writer interviews Rep. Jim DeMint, who voices his concern that the rich were paying for an outsidzed portion of government spending… DeMint's theory has some obvious flaws.
Even though GIS work is done all across the government--conducting emergency responses, collecting weather data, and assisting tactical maneuvers on the battlefield--a large portion of government GIS work is centered at NASA, USGS, and NOAA, where agency scientists study issues like land cover, global warming, and deforestation.
The proposal landed in the middle of a busy news cycle where Washington is consumed with a spending fight over the current fiscal year budget, a much smaller portion of government spending that nonetheless will shut down the federal government if it is not resolved by Friday.
Despite the depth of some of the cuts proposed by Republicans, they would skim less than half of a percentage point from current deficit levels because they tackle only discretionary spending, which makes up a relatively small portion of government spending.
