If anything, even the CBO estimates are too gloomy. Despite accumulating evidence that the new economy really is capable of higher sustained growth, the CBO projections are based on the same sluggish real growth rates of 2 - 2.5 percent. Besides higher than expected economic growth, there is a second reason for these whopping surpluses. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the proposed Republican budget would extract even deeper spending cuts, totalling about 28 percent by 2009. Economic times have changed.
Budget surplus is no longer the premier public issue.
It Clinton and his New Democrat pals won't fight to lift the caps, some real Democrats should step up to the plate. There are pressing public needs that we can now afford to meet, thanks to better economic times, and they are not limited to Social Security. These include, for starters, full prescription drug coverage for Medicare, smaller public school classrooms, budget relief for nursing homes and hospitals, more comprehensive child care outlays, affordable housing programs, and a restoration of public infrastructure investment. Outside the Washington echo chamber, where both parties seem to be stuck in the late 1980s, these public outlays are highly popular. It's only green eyeshade types who think that endless surpluses are the sole badge of government virtue.