在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

美2015财政预算引发不同反应

The release of the U.S. fiscal¹ budget for 2015 is getting a lukewarm response from both supporters and critics of President Barack Obama. The $3.9 trillion budget promises to lower the annual deficit² even as it expands opportunities for poor and working-class Americans.  But critics say it does so by raising taxes on the wealthy -- while ignoring the nation’s most pressing fiscal problems.

美国2015年度财政预算公布之后，奥巴马总统的支持者和批评者都反应冷淡。这个3万9千亿美元的预算案承诺减少年度赤字，同时扩大美国穷人和工薪阶层的机会。批评者指出，为此，预算案将提高富人的税率，却忽视了美国最紧迫的财政问题。

Whether it’s improving our aging roads and bridges or expanding opportunities for low-income Americans and school age children, President Barack Obama says it’s about making the right choices.

奥巴马总统指出，不管是改善国家老旧的道路和桥梁，还是扩大低收入美国人和学龄儿童的机会，这些都是正确的选择：

“As a country, we have got to make a decision if we are going to protect tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, or if we are going to make smart investments necessary to create jobs and grow our economy, and expand opportunity for every American,” said Obama.

“作为一个国家，我们必须做出决断，是保护最富裕美国人的减税优惠，还是为了创造就业机会、推动经济增长、扩大每个美国人的机会而进行必要而明智的投资。”

The president proposes paying for some of those programs by eliminating loopholes and raising taxes on wealthy Americans. Republicans say this budget, however, is nothing more than an election year blueprint³ -- one that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said is bad for the economy.

奥巴马总统建议通过堵塞漏洞和给富人加税来支付一些项目的费用。但共和党人指出，这个预算只不过是一个选举年蓝图而已，参议院少数党领袖麦康奈尔则称其对经济有害：

"It’s time the president realizes that doubling down on the same failed policies is simply not going to work. Yet that's what this budget proposes to do,” he said.

“总统现在应该认识到，重复同样的失败政策根本行不通。然而，这恰恰是这个预算方案要做的。”

Those who study economic minutiae⁴ are not as harsh in their assessment⁵.

但那些研究经济细节的人的评估并不那么严苛。

Marc Goldwein, a senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said, “I do think the president importantly focuses on investments, and I appreciate that he actually does reduce the deficit in this budget, but I don’t think he goes nearly far enough.”

负责任联邦预算委员会的资深政策主任戈尔德温说：“我的确认为总统高度重视投资，我赞赏他在预算中确实削减了赤字，但我认为他做的还远远不够。”

That's because discretionary spending, which includes things such as job training and transportation projects, makes up less than a third of the nearly $4 trillion the government will spend next year. The largest share will go toward paying fixed⁶ costs for entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare.

这是因为，包括工作培训和交通项目在内的可支配开支在政府下个财政年度近4万亿美元的预算中只占不到三分之一。政府预算的最大部分将花在社保和医保等福利项目的固定开支上。

"The smart thing to do would actually be to accompany entitlement reform and immigration reform, so we have this new tax base and we have a system where we can afford to actually pay the benefits," said Goldwein.

戈尔德温说：“聪明的做法实际上是同时进行福利改革和移民改革，这样我们就将有新的税收来源，将有一个体系使我们能够支付得起这些福利。”

Without major reforms to entitlement programs and what he called an unwieldy tax code -- Goldwein said U.S. debt will become unsustainable. While he admitted that lawmakers are unlikely to approve the budget in an election year, he said neither Congress nor the president can afford to wait too long.

戈尔德温指出，不对福利项目和庞杂的税法进行重大改革，美国的债务将难以持续。戈尔德温承认，国会议员们在选举年不大可能批准这个预算，然而，不管是国会还是总统，都不能等得太久。