Word: surpluses
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SQUEAL FACTOR Perhaps the budget surplus is to blame for all the pet projects that were tacked on to the $288 billion defense bill after its Senate approval. Smart Trucks may well be worth $3.5 million. But, as protesters John McCain and Phil Gramm pointed out, some others smell a bit porky...
What explains this sudden interest in inheritance taxes? For one thing, there is the booming economy, which has raised the number of millionaires and those who think they can become millionaires. There's also the federal budget surplus, which has fueled tax-cutting desires in both parties. But the biggest factor is a brilliant marketing campaign by Republican foes of the estate tax. To combat the plutocratic image of estate holders, they circulated heart-rending tales of small businesses and farms bankrupted by the estate tax. Most shrewdly, Republican pollsters realized that few voters get angry over taxes on estates...
...marriage penalty. Although administration officials and Democratic leaders have been condemning the tax cuts as too deep, "what's been missing is the President's voice," said one aide here. Solution: last Saturday's radio address, which dealt exclusively with domestic tax issues, attacking the Republicans for "treating the surplus like they'd won it in the lottery." There was no mention of the G-8 in the address, which could have just as well been delivered from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as from Japan...
...Gore isn't after Bush on foreign policy - rather, how to spend the surplus and caretake the boom could be the national issue of the rest of the election. In Kasich Bush gets the resident GOP expert with the number-crunching skills to make Bush's tax cuts and spending plans look as responsible as Gore's, if indeed anybody can pull that off. The Ohioan can also help in the Rust Belt, but Bush doesn't even have to spin it that way. He's always said how much he liked Al Gore as loyal-clone veep choice...
...cost overruns, mainly in social programs for which the demand has risen with the state's booming economy and burgeoning population, aren't a real deficit. In fact, state comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander (a very defensive Republican this week) announced that the state would see an estimated $1.1 billion surplus - more than enough, she said, to pay for the overruns. Sorry, Al, but that's just as good as the imaginary surpluses they're racking up in Washington...