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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (172588)	8/19/2001 12:31:58 AM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Shrinking Surplus Is Budget Battle Cry Democratic Effort Aims to Discredit Bush Tax Policies By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, August 19, 2001; Page A01 Democrats plan to launch an assault on President Bush's budget and tax policies this week, including town hall meetings, protests and attack ads, to undermine his political support when Congress returns to complete work on the 2002 spending bills. Seizing on news that this year the government will need to spend Medicare payroll taxes to pay for defense, education and other federal programs -- and could even begin tapping Social Security payroll taxes -- Democrats have concluded that they can use the dwindling budget surplus to discredit Bush's tax cut, derail his plans for private Social Security investment accounts and energize the Democratic base for the 2002 elections. Republicans dismiss the attack as a scare tactic and plan to emphasize that Bush's tax cut will stimulate the economy while making it more difficult for Congress to overspend. But Republicans privately concede they are nervous about the public's response to the news that the budget surplus has plunged so quickly. On Wednesday, the administration will announce a projected budget surplus of about $158 billion, but when Social Security receipts are excluded, the surplus is just $1 billion, sources said. Earlier this year the administration said it would exceed the Social Security surplus by $125 billion. Now it will be able to show a $1 billion margin only by changing the accounting at the last minute to free up an additional $4 billion to add to the non-Social Security accounts. The margin is so narrow that a separate forecast by the Congressional Budget Office next week could show that the government is actually a few billion dollars into the Social Security surplus -- a line that members of both parties had promised they would not cross. Whichever is the case, the government would be spending Medicare payroll taxes on other government programs, which Democrats and many Republican lawmakers have said is not acceptable.