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 ouse Republicans
are worried about the White House budget plan for 2003, especially
now that the Congressional Budget Office is projecting a $14 billion
deficit that year. They're not sure they have the votes to pass
the president's budget — Democrats aren't going to help, and
enough members may be antsy about the deficits or flake off for
other reasons to defeat it. And they're annoyed that the White House
didn't consult with them before drawing a budget up.
Political fears
about running a deficit are almost certainly overblown. (The only
time deficits have really been a powerful political issue was in
1993-95, when they symbolized an out-of-touch, irresponsible, oppressive
Washington.) But if Republicans really want to avoid a deficit,
cutting $14 billion out of the budget should be feasible. They'll
have to cut a bit more to make room for a defense boost.
Conservative
members are willing to reevaluate their concerns about a deficit
if a real stimulus bill is on the table. But they don't want to
leave room in the budget for one that ends up going to new spending
programs.
Tax-Cut
Politics
One
bit of Republican spin that's gone undeservedly unchallenged is
that Tom Daschle is hurting some of the Senate Democrats who are
up for reelection this year by criticizing the tax cut they voted
for. How are these senators supposed to be hurt? Daschle is giving
them an opportunity to show their independence of mind — and
their unliberalism and willingness to work with the president, compared
to the national Democratic party — by disagreeing with him.
A big tax fight could hurt these Democrats only if it so defined
their party as pro-tax in the public mind that their votes for the
tax cut were overshadowed. That's an unlikely scenario, and even
under it Democrats wouldn't be in trouble because they had voted
for tax cuts but in spite of it.
Whether it's
good for Daschle to be contradicted by his followers is another
question.
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