Federal File: Numbers game

Child-, youth-, and education-related programs would get nearly one-half of a "modest investment package" of $48.8 billion over five years, under an option contained in a White House budget memorandum that incited controversy last week.

The memo written by Alice M. Rivlin, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, outlines a series of budget options for President Clinton for fiscal years 1996 through 2000.

Republicans seized on the Oct. 3 memo, titled "Big Choices," as election-year ammunition,...