| LIREG |
| Also on Thursday, Congressmen Steve Israel (D-Huntington) andPeter King (R-Seaford) joined the Long Island Real Estate Groupat the Old Westbury Golf and Country Club to discuss what the Long Island business community can expect from Washington this year. They reported to the crowd of 150 that federal legislators remain embroiled in budget disputes. “You’re going to see a lot of trench warfare over the next few months,” Rep. King warned, adding that what we’ll see is more continuing resolutions and not any agenda coming forward that'll impact the Long Island biz community. Rep. Israel said Congress passed a plethora of bills last fall, including extending tax cuts, but so far “it’s been gridlock and finger pointingon both sides” this year, and he called for a “cooler-heads caucus.” |
| The congressmen with LIREG’s exec board: First Development Corp’s David Einbinder (LIREG prez), Wachtler Knopf Equities’Philip Wachtler, Lazer Aptheker Rosella & Yedid’s Samuel Yedid, and Ruskin Moscou Faltischek's Eric Rubenstein. December was great, Rep. Israel said, pointing out they passed several important measures in a bipartisan fashion, but January through March has been a total reversal. Despite belonging to different parties, theyagreed on several issues and said if it were just the two of them in a room, they’d be able to hammer out a budget fairly easily. The culprit in cutting the budget? It's not discretionary spending. It's Medicareand Social Security, which would need major reforms going forward. “Even if we cut all discretionary spending, which would shut down every department including Congress, 10 years from now, we’d still have a deficit in the trillions of dollars,” Rep. Israel said. |
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