Word: surpluses
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...Which gets us to the second promise. The sagging economy and the first installment of Bush?s tax cut have so reduced tax revenues that the only surplus left for this year, and for the next couple, are the hundreds of billions of dollars extra collected for Social Security. Congress routinely dipped into Social Security surpluses when they began appearing in 1983 in order to pay for other government programs, and economists see no harm in doing that now, particularly as a recession hedge...
...that means breaking a promise. In 1998, Republicans and Democrats made a blood oath never to touch the Social Security surplus and they fear it would be political suicide to do so now. But it may be impossible not to dip into the fund if Bush wants to spend more on education and still give the Pentagon $18.4 billion extra next year for a national missile defense. And it may be a good idea to dip into the fund to help stimulate the economy. But so far, the only politician to stick his head above the parapet and say times...
...greatest political peril will come if he and the Congress eat up great hunks of the Social Security trust fund (they are already raiding Medicare, something the OMB report went to great pains to say didn't matter) to meet general operating expenses. The $158 billion Social Security surplus is as tempting to Democrats as it is to Bush, who vowed again last week to increase defense and education spending. But there's a compelling reason to hold the line. Neither party wants to be at the wrong end of attack commercials next fall saying it sold out seniors. Bush...
...battle over the lost surplus rages in the months ahead, look for both sides to tie the issue to emotionally resonant problems. That's just what Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer did last week at an Arthritis Foundation meeting in Edgewater, Md. Hoyer tried earlier this year to increase federal research on chronic diseases by $350 million, but the White House pared it down to $175 million. He had hoped to restore the cut, but with the surplus gone, he told the seniors, it now seems unlikely. In Missouri, Bush had used his favorite tax-cut line: "It's your money...
MITCH DANIELS Budget director's rosy report says there really is a surplus. Also sees Tupac at 7-Eleven...