2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：真正的战斗打响了

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　The budget预算 The real fight begins真正的战斗打响了

　　As a government shutdown looms, an attempt tograpple with America’s long-term deficit problems isat last under way

　　政府关门之危迫在眉睫，最终总算有人挺身而出解决美国长期的赤字问题了

　　CONGRESS may not be very good at passingbudgets, but that is not for lack of discussion ofthem. This week it was by three overlappingbudgetary debates: about a “continuing resolution”to keep the government up and running for the restof this fiscal year, about next year’s budget and about whether to raise the legal limit on thefederal government’s debt. Lawmakers have just under six months to sort out next year’sbudget, and under six weeks before America’s debt reaches the current ceiling. But without anew resolution, the government’s authority to spend will expire at midnight on April 8th,forcing much of it to shut up shop. As The Economist went to press, the Republicans who runthe House of Representatives, the Democrats who run the Senate and Barack Obama himselfwere holding last-ditch talks, but also warning their staffs to prepare for a shutdown.

　　国会可能并不是很擅长通过预算，但这并不是因为议员之间缺乏讨论沟通。本周国会将同时忙于三场关于预算的辩论：有关“延续性决议”的辩论，以维持政府运转直至本财政年度结束;有关下一年度预算的辩论;有关是否应提升联邦政府债务法定上限的辩论。立法人员仅有不到六个月的时间整理下一年度的预算，更是仅有不到六周的时间美国的债务就到达当前的上限了。但在没有新决议的情况下，政府开支之权将在4月8日午夜12点废止，政府大部分部门将被迫关门。截至本期《经济学人》付梓之时，共和党控制的众议院、民主党控制的参议院及贝拉克·奥巴马总统本人在举行最后的会谈，同时也警告各自职员为政府关门做好准备。

　　This cliffhanger is the culmination of months of fiscal bickering, punctuated by stopgapcontinuing resolutions. Since February the Republicans have been holding out for $61 billion incuts to this year’s budget, including assaults on favoured Democratic causes such as publicbroadcasting (see article). The Democrats argue that their proposal is too extreme, toopolitical, and too narrowly focused. The previous two continuing resolutions, which hadlifespans of two and three weeks respectively, were intended to allow the two sides enoughtime to hammer out a compromise for the rest of the year.

　　这一悬念标志着数月以来关于财政的争吵，在“延续性决议”这一权宜之计的推波助澜下达到顶峰。自二月份以来，共和党人一直坚持削减本年度财政预算610亿美元，包括攻击民主党倡导的、备受民众欢迎的众多事业，例如公共广播项目(见文章)。民主党则认为共和党人的建议苛刻、政见强烈、目光狭隘。前两个延续性决议分别为期2周和3周，目的是为双方提供足够的时间达成妥协，度过本财政年度剩余的几个月。

　　Predictably, much of that time was instead spentgrandstanding. The House recently passed a billstating that if the Senate did not pass a budget ofits own, the House’s $61 billion cut, which theSenate had already rejected, should become lawanyway. Needless to say, the Senate did notembrace this idea. House Republicans then took toprotesting on the Senate steps each day, calling onthe Democrats’ leader in that chamber, Harry Reid,to resign. Meanwhile, a group of tea-party activiststhreatened dire vengeance on any Republicans whovoted for anything less than the full $61 billion of cuts. A bipartisan group of 64 of the 100senators sent Mr Obama a letter asking him to find a solution to their problems. Mr Obamacalled Congress’s failure to pass a budget “inexcusable” and said that he would summon theleaders of its two chambers to the White House every day for talks until a deal was done.

　　不难预测，大部分时间都被浪费在哗众取宠上了。众议院最近通过了一项议案，该议案指出：如果参议院否决众议院的预算——实际上参议院早已否决该预算——那该预算必将通过，具有法律效力。无需多言，参议院不接受这一建议。众议院的共和党人随后每天都抗议参议院的决议，要求参议院民主党领导人哈里·瑞德辞职。同时，一群茶党思想的激进分子威胁称将对任何支持610亿美元以下预算削减方案的共和党人实施极端报复。由100位参议员中的64位组成的两党联立组织向奥巴马总统致信一封，要求总统寻求问题的解决方案。奥巴马总统则称国会未能通过预算方案“难辞其咎”，并表示以后每天他将召见参众两院领导人到白宫进行商讨，直至达成协议之日。

　　A man with a plan谋略之士

　　It was into this maelstrom that Paul Ryan, the Republican who heads the House BudgetCommittee, released his proposed budget for next year on April 5th. He claimed it would slashspending by $6.2 trillion over the next ten years and the projected deficit by $4.4 trillionrelative to the proposal the president unveiled in February. All of this would place America’sfinances on a sounder path—though critics note that Mr Ryan’s figures are based on somehighly implausible assumptions, such as a prompt collapse in the unemployment rate and asurge in growth thanks to lower taxes. Whereas under the president’s plan debt wouldcontinue to rise steadily towards 100% of GDP, Mr Ryan’s would supposedly see it peak justshy of 75% of GDP in 2013 and decline thereafter.

　　正是在这一大混乱背景之下，共和党人保罗·瑞恩——众议院预算委员会主席——于4月5日提出了下一年度的财政预算方案。他表示该方案将在未来十年内大幅削减政府支出，减幅达6.2万亿美元;与奥巴马总统今年二月份提出的方案相比，该方案预计将削减赤字达4.4万亿美元。所有这些措施都将使美国财政回归平稳运行轨道——尽管批评家指责瑞恩先生的数据是基于可信度极低的假设之上的——例如降低税率带来的失业率迅速下降、经济上涨。而在总统的计划中，债务将持续稳步增长至与国内生产总值相当的水平。瑞恩先生的方案中，债务占国内生产总值的比重最高峰将于2013年勉强达到75%，随后开始下降。

　　The Republicans claim to be able to achieve this feat by taking an axe to two of the biggestand most politically sensitive items in the budget: Medicare, government subsidised health-care for the elderly, and Medicaid, its equivalent for the poor. (There are limits to the numberof live rails Mr Ryan is willing to grasp at once: his budget leaves intact the biggest single itemin the budget, Social Security, the state pension scheme). These three “entitlements” alreadyaccount for over 40% of government spending and are growing so fast that they willtheoretically consume all government revenue within a few decades.

　　共和党人声称有能力完成这一壮举，但需对预算中开支最大、政治敏感度最高的两个项目进行大刀阔斧的改革。这两大项目就是：医疗改革项目——政府针对老年人实行的医疗津贴项目，和医疗补助项目——政府针对贫困人口的医疗补助项目。(瑞恩先生欲一次解决问题的数量有限：他的预算方案未触及另外一个最大的项目——社会保障制度，国家养老金方案)。这三大“公民应得权利”就占据了全部政府开支的40%以上，而且增长速度极快，理论上讲，不消几十年就将消耗全部政府财政收入。

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