Spending cuts, not tax increases, needed to reduce debt.

• Position: GOVERNMENT SPENDING

What's the best solution to easing the staggering United States budget deficit? If you ask chief financial officers and senior controllers, the answer is simple: broad spending reductions.

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That's the conclusion of a recent survey of more L than 300 senior finance executives by Grant Thornton LLP of whom two-thirds say they are against any tax in creases as an element of national debt-reduction.

Only one-third suggested the best deficit-closing approach is a combination of spending and tax increases. And the number supporting a tax increase-only remedy? One percent.

CFOs and other senior financial executives were also asked what they thought about national health care reform and how it would affect the way they can do their jobs. Almost half of them said they worried that the reform law would lead to higher product prices; nearly two in five said they believed health reform would decrease their company's growth and limit their long-term ability to hire new employees.

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But nearly 60 percent added that they thought health reform would not affect their decisions related to whether to increase their company's headcount in 2011.

Otherwise, respondents said that the three most vexing...