Bush budget estimate may be $41 billion off

By Alan Fram

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s budget would dig a deeper deficit next year than the White House claims and tap $1.8 trillion in Social Security surpluses for other programs over the next decade, Congress’ top fiscal analyst said Wednesday.

Both political parties immediately drew the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s report into their election-year fight over Bush’s plans to cut taxes and boost spending for defense and domestic security.

Democrats said the analysis underlined the need to "restrain spending and tax cuts," while Republicans said it showed the budget’s condition will improve as the recession fades.

"You bring us rather good news," Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told budget office director Dan Crippen, who presented his agency’s report to the Senate Budget Committee.

Though the economy has shown signs of regaining strength, Crippen said Bush’s budget would create a deficit next year of $121 billion — $41 billion worse than Bush has projected.

Bush’s proposal — which Congress is only beginning to work on — would begin generating annual surpluses in 2005, yielding a total surplus of $681 billion from 2003 through 2012, the report said.

That is in contrast to Bush’s estimate of a $1 trillion 10-year surplus.

The report also predicted a $90 billion deficit under Bush’s budget for fiscal 2002, which runs through next Sept. 30. The White House has estimated this year’s deficit at $106 billion. Either figure would end a string of four straight years of surpluses.

Democrats focused their fire on the report’s forecast that $1.8 trillion in Social Security surpluses would be used to help pay for other programs over the coming decade.

Calling such a course "simply unsustainable," Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said, "We have got to restrain spending and tax cuts if we’re to prepare for what’s to come."