2017考研英语阅读每日精选：预算趣录
在考研英语中，阅读分数可谓是占到了总分的半壁江山，正所谓“得阅读者得考研”。对于备考考研的同学们，在平时的复习中一定要拓展阅读思路，各类话题都要关注，这样才能在整体上提升考研英语阅读水平!一起来学习吧!
Fun on a budget
预算趣录
Congress is incapable of restraining spending. Itshould let the president try
国会无力控制开支，也许该放手让总统一试
AT THE end of Barack Obama's budget, which waspublished on February 2nd, the administration thanks 614 people by name for putting thething together. It adds that “hundreds, perhaps thousands”of nameless others also helped.There is something depressing about the effort that went into producing the document. Thebudget is an admirable piece of work which contains many good ideas, from cuts in farmsubsidies to an increase in tax credits for childless workers. There is, however, a grammaticalmistake repeated throughout it. “The budget will”, the president writes, when what he means isthat his budget would, in the unlikely event that Congress were ever to pass it.
奥巴马总统的财政年度预算于2月2日公布，在预算案的最后，政府向614人致谢，感谢他们为预算案形成所作出的贡献。它也指出“成百甚至上万的无名之士同样做出了贡献”。但为文件形成所付出的努力中，有一些让人沮丧的部分。从削减农产品补助到增加对无子工人的免税额度，该份预算案包含了许多好想法，堪称一项壮举。但却有一个语法错误贯穿始终。总统写道“预算案将……”，但其实，他是想说，预算案幻想，因为国会绝不会通过该项议案。
As a guide to what the federal government might look like if America were a monarchy, or as acompendium of interesting policies, the president's budget is a good read—but not muchmore. A similar criticism applies to most proposals that come out of the budget committees inCongress. This is because no group or individual is responsible for the 4 trillion federal budget,a fact that helps explain how it manages to be both profligate and stingy, and is forever in thered.
如果这项议案是作为一本指南，描述美国如果是一个君主制国家将会如何，或者是一本大纲，介绍有趣的政策，那这会是一本佳作，但这项议案的功能，仅此而已。国会的预算委员会出台的提案，也大多如此。这是因为没有任何团体或个人直接对四万亿的联邦预算负责，这个事实也说明了为什么政府既挥霍无度又吝啬小气，而且长期处于赤字。
The president's budget would not change that. He has declared an end to “mindlessausterity”, but does not seem to care much for the thoughtful sort either. In previousbudgets he offered to trim entitlements a bit in return for tax increases. Republicans inCongress rejected this, and Democrats who supported the president's budget were rewardedwith attack adverts in the mid-terms claiming that they wanted to raise the retirement age andslash Medicare. He now proposes higher taxes, more spending and continued deficits. Publicdebt would stay at its current level, around 75% of GDP, for the next decade. By 2025,according to the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, annual interestpayments would rise from 1.3% to 2.8% of GDP (nearly 800 billion, or enough to pay a year'stuition at Harvard, at current prices and with no financial aid, for 18m students).
奥巴马总统的预算案亦不能扭转乾坤。他叫停了“愚蠢的紧缩”，但却似乎也不想做出
