This book will serve as a guide for understanding and evaluating proposals of the next Congress and the Clinton administration. Edited by Robert D. Reischauer, one of the nation's most noted budget experts, the book covers such critical issues as whether any measures to stimulate economic growth can also reduce the budget deficit, how to reduce domestic discretionary spending, how to restructure medicare, how much to lower the safety net, how to reshape national security for the post-cold war world, whether to transform the tax system, and how to prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation. This book will be extremely useful for citizens eager to make sense out of the post-election rhetoric, journalists attempting to explain the issues at play, and students of public policy, public health, political science, and economics.