Switch to Desktop Site  'Bloated' government: '83 budget won't
reduce it much  About these ads  The Reagan administration has
long described the federal government as a bloated monolith to
be pried off people's backs.  But President Reagan's
controversial new budget paints a slightly different picture.
Instead of a single entity, the government for budget purposes
is split into parts -- entitlement programs, defense, interest
payments on the federal debt, and everything else. Entitlements
and defense are escaping unscathed. Interest on the national
debt is a fixed cost. So reducing bloat means slashing at the 38
percent of the government that falls under ''everything else.''
The result, writes the President in his budget message, would be
an ''asymmetrical pattern of growth'' with some programs growing
while others are held constant or cut back -- as much ''a
reordering of fiscal policy'' as a reduction in overall size.
And it isn't only the size that's annoying Mr. Reagan. So are
federal regulations. Even