Word: gop
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...Conservative House Republicans are nervous about the $80 billion deficit Bush would run up in the $2.13 trillion budget he proposes for fiscal year 2003. The GOP, after all, is supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Yeah, there's a war and a recession to fight, but Republicans fret that when Bush opens the door slightly to a deficit, the Democrats will open it wider to pour in money for all their spending programs. The budget deficit could balloon and GOP congressmen would catch as much heat for the red ink as the Democrats...
...House Republican congressmen privately breathed a sigh of relief last week when Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle shelved the $77 billion stimulus package Bush wanted for next year. By their math, that reduces next year's budget deficit to just $3 billion, a much more palatable figure for GOP conservatives. But their relief might be short-lived. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the Bush White House, like all White Houses before it, used overly rosy revenue and cost projections in its budget proposal and even without the stimulus package Bush could still be $55 billion...
...Democrats have the momentum in the budget war? Not quite. Gephardt and House Democrats have the luxury of being able to gripe from the sidelines. They're in the minority; House Speaker Dennis Hastert and his GOP colleagues run that chamber and have to get a budget resolution through it. But the Democrats control the Senate. After the howling over Bush's budget quiets, Daschle has to produce a budget that the Senate will pass if Democrats want to be seen as a credible alternative to Bush and his spending plans...
...cuts in the future than raid Social Security to pay for them. Democrats think that reciting dry budget forecasts won't stir up the voters, but framing the debate around the Enron scandal will. Republicans disagree, arguing the public still perceives Democrats as the big spenders and the GOP as the party of fiscal responsibility. "Enronization" won't have legs, GOP operatives assure me. "It's kind of a cute tactic," says a senior House Republican aide. "But it will be viewed more as a politicization of Enron and as taking advantage of their employees who have been victimized." Perhaps...
...Then there's the political calculus of the midterm elections. Voters will probably be willing to cut Cheney and the administration some slack if there is a clear-cut reason for secrecy. Otherwise, Cheney and the GOP could take a pounding in the press. "Everyone is very sympathetic to issues of national security," says Melanson, "especially in times like these. But when it comes to issues of domestic policy that affect a controversial matter, I think the public right to know and even the doctrine of executive privilege suggests some information should be forthcoming...