Word: surplus
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...very high compared with, say, Ronald Reagan's at the end of his term. Most of these things, though, are simply extensions of programs Clinton has proposed for years, and it remains to be seen whether there's that much left to spend when the calculation of the budget surplus is less optimistic." While GOP leaders balked at the President's big spending plans, the party's overall response was cautious - where Clinton worked a traditional Republican theme on tax cuts, the GOP's designated respondents, Senators Susan Collins and Bill Frist, emphasized their party's activist commitment...
...keeping with his maverick style, McCain is betting Bush is wrong about his own party. In McCain's economic plan, the details of which were released only last week, he calls for a tax cut roughly half the size of Bush's, with the rest of the budget surplus used to shore up Social Security and Medicare and to pay down the nation's $5 trillion debt. That's because McCain believes that the rank-and-file of his party now care more about being fiscally conservative and protecting entitlement programs than they do about getting big tax cuts...
...that Clinton has made Social Security the Holy Grail, everyone has to sip from his cup. McCain spent last week denouncing Bush's "fiscally irresponsible" tax-cut plan for threatening Social Security while returning 60% of the surplus to the top 10% of wage earners, "like most of his top contributors." Said McCain: "I don't believe rich Americans need tax breaks." His plan, which he intends to unveil this week, would cost about $600 billion over 10 years, or 40% less than Bush's, and focus on Social Security protection and on propping up lower-income Americans. McCain...
...sorts when I talk about the substance of the policy," said Gore in Durham, smiling sweetly and obviously having fun getting under Bradley's skin. He had just suggested that Bradley lacks "the experience to keep our prosperity going," and that Bradley "wants to blow the whole surplus" on an "unwise" plan, and then he stuck the knife in further: "I think he's a genuinely good person." Ouch. Gore was practicing an age-old Southern put-down: if you're going to say something snide in polite society, sprinkle a little sugar on it for extra effect...
Some facts, to begin with: The gross domestic product is up about 4%. Inflation is at 2.6%. Unemployment is at 4.1%. Our budget surplus stands at $124 billion; the deficit in our balance of international payments is about $300 billion. A three-bedroom apartment in the most fashionable neighborhoods of Manhattan rents for about $12,000 a month. The median price for a house nationwide is $133,000. People pay as much as $350,000 to rent a summer house to be near partygoing writers, editors and agents, whose principal ambition in life is to be able to rent...