Word: surplus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...failed campaign, but Democrats still think they can draw blood with the fairness attack. In the latest TIME/CNN poll, a narrow majority of those surveyed, 51 percent, say Bush's plan favors the rich. Daschle's pollsters tell him the public also suspects that the projected $5.6 trillion budget surplus won't fully materialize to pay for the cuts. If it doesn't - and if Bush keeps his promises to hike spending for health care, education and missile defense - the tax cut will end up being paid for with "a raid" on Social Security and Medicare, Democrats warn...
...Nervous about rosy surplus projections, Senate moderates have floated the idea of a "trigger" that would postpone tax cuts in later years if there's no surplus to cover them. Bill Thomas, House Ways and Means Committee chairman, has ideas of his own, such as moving the tax-rate cuts through his committee before taking up other parts of the package. "You know, Bill," Bush joked with Thomas at a White House meeting, "you can pass anything you want as long as it's my bill." The two men laughed - but both knew that wasn't the case...
...even if this slowdown lasts for 10 years, 2.4 percent a year falls rather neatly into the Congressional Budget Office's admirably conservative economic projections that it plugs into its surplus forecasts. Heck, compared to the pre-New Economy years, before office technology and Internet efficiencies started to infiltrate Old Economy businesses, it's pretty darn good...
...Overall, the Bush White House can feel free to use Thursday's numbers as further evidence that a tax cut is needed, without shooting itself in the foot over surplus projections and fiscal responsibility. As Alan Greenspan told the Senate, productivity gains "show few signs of abating" and "should support growth of the economy over time...
...meantime, we're in a temporary slowdown - maybe six months, maybe nine, maybe a recurring, malaria-type thing that happens every time a NASDAQ bubble bursts. But if the surplus projections turn sour a few years down the road, it'll likely be the politicians' fault...