Republicans and Democrats alike traditionally spend beyond the government's means, he said. There was a contest at the end of the last session to figure out who could spend the most money. The CBO itself has cautioned about the fallibility of its 10-year surplus projection. Unforeseen factors, from a recession to increased federal spending to an economic boon, could drastically affect the surplus, CBO economists said. Congressional Democrats have proposed a more modest tax-cut package that would divide the surplus into thirds.
Democratic leaders promote their plan as a more responsible approach in uncertain economic times.
Bush's plan eats up so much of the surplus, they said, that it would drain money away from federal programs like Social Security and Medicare if the surpluses needed to fund it did not materialize. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed the Democrats' arguments Friday. The Democrat approach is a little more arbitrary. The president's foremost example is his plan to increase federal funding for local schools coupled with his demand that those schools regularly test their students to ensure that they are learning. Schools in which students fail the tests and do not improve could lose their federal money.