Deficit Doubts
And taxes.

By Ramesh Ponnuru
January 25, 2002 3:15 p.m.

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.