Al Gore on Budget & Economy 2000 Democratic Nominee for President; Former Vice President

Sub-sections under Budget & Economy:
• Budget Surplus
• Other issues under Budget & Economy

Bush’s policies made $4 trillion in surpluses disappear

Prosperity itself is on the ballot; keep “new-economy”

Arguing that “prosperity itself is on the ballot,” Gore focused on the new economy and what government should-and should not-do to ensure that the remarkable innovations in the technology sector seen in recent years continue. “We face a big choice. Will we make the right decisions, the responsible decisions, to unlock the full potential of this new Internet economy and make it work for all our people?”

Responding to Bush’s charge that he favors bigger government, Gore said, “government should never be a barrier” to the new economy, and he promised to preside over “a smaller, smarter government that knows when to get out of the way and isn’t a drag on economic growth.”

Paying down debt reduces government intrusion

BUSH: What I’ve done is set priorities and funded them, and there’s extra money.

After 8 years of prosperity, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Prosperity results from current policy plus entrepreneurship

GORE: I think that the American people deserve credit for the great economy that we have. And it’s their ingenuity. I agree with that. But they were working pretty hard eight years ago, and they had ingenuity eight years ago. The difference is, we’ve got a new policy. Look, we have gone from the biggest deficits to the biggest surpluses; we’ve gone from a triple dip recession during the previous 12 years to a tripling of the stock market. Instead of high unemployment, we’ve got the lowest African-American and lowest Latino unemployment rates ever in history, and 22 million new jobs.

Make hard choices to keep prosperity rolling

Helping middle-class is goal of economic plan

Lays out 10 goals in Prosperity for America’s Families plan

Gore’s 191-page “Prosperity for America’s Families” plan lays out ten ambitious goals within a balanced budget. Their goals include:
1. Make America Debt Free by 2012.
2. Protect Social Security and Medicare Surpluses via a “lockbox.”
3. Double the Number of Families with Savings in Excess of $50,000 via new, 401(k)-style, Retirement Savings Plus accounts.
4. Reduce Income Taxes on the Typical Family to the Lowest Level in 50 Years with $480 billion in targeted tax cuts.
5. Raise Family Incomes by One Third over the Next Decade
6. Enable 7 in 10 Families to Own a Home -- a new record
7. Lift College Attendance and Graduation Rates to New Records via tuition tax credits
8. Reduce Poverty to Below 10% for the First Time Ever by raising the minimum wage and other reforms.
9. Cut the Gap Between What Men and Women Earn by 50% Over the Next Decade
10. Create 10 Million New High Tech, High Skill Jobs

Safeguard prosperity to reduce poverty

Enable more families to save, own homes, and pay less tax

Encourage “Retirement Savings Plus” accounts

Confidence in markets & policy is basis for solid economy

Economic slowdown would prompt Reinvention push

Clinton-Gore budget concepts broke cycle of recession

Low interest rates are a key to strong economy

Surest way to bust economy is Bush’s tax cuts

GORE: What he’s quoting is not the Senate Budget Committee, it is a partisan press release by the Republicans. And as for the surest way to threaten our prosperity, having a $1.9 trillion tax cut, almost half of which goes to the wealthy, and a $1 trillion Social Security privatization proposal, is the surest way to put our budget into deficit, raise interest rates and put our prosperity at risk.

BUSH: I can’t let the man continue with fuzzy math. It’s $1.3 trillion, Mr. Vice President. And it’s going to go to everybody who pays taxes. I’m not going to be a pick-and-chooser. What is fair is everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief.

Set aside $300B as a “Surplus Reserve Fund”

$4.56 trillion spending plan for 10 years’ budget surplus

The Gore-Lieberman plan backs up [their 10-point list of economic goals in their “Prosperity for America’s Families” plan] with a detailed summary of how they would allocate the $4.56 trillion budget surplus projected for the next decade. The major elements of the Gore-Lieberman Plan, include the following, (under CBO scoring, in billions):
1. Social Security and debt reduction lockbox $2,388
2. Medicare and debt reduction lockbox $ 360
3. Medicare Interest Solvency Transfers $ 75
4. Medicare Prescription Drugs and other Medicare Policies $ 340
5. Targeted Tax Cuts $ 480
6. Investments in Education and Learning $ 115
7. Improving and Expanding Quality Health Care $ 120
8. Environment and Energy Security $ 120
9. National Security $ 100
10. Interest and Other, Net of Offsets $ 153
11. Surplus Reserve Fund $ 300
12. Unallocated $ 10

Set aside one-sixth of surplus in case rosy estimates fail

We are proposing - as a hedge against overspending based on “rosy estimates” - that before Congress spends money under its more optimistic projections, it set aside one-sixth of the non-Social Security, non-Medicare surplus.

Free America from debt by paying down $3 trillion

Al Gore has a plan to keep paying down the debt, making America free of its publicly-held debt by 2012. The plan devotes a substantial portion of the total budget surplus to debt reduction. Over the next ten years, the plan would pay down the debt by $3 trillion:
• $2.3 trillion of Social Security surplus
• $450 billion of Medicare surplus
• $300 billion in an additional Surplus Reserve Fund

Use surplus to strengthen Social Security, Medicare

Spend $164B surplus on Medicare, tax cuts, & debt

Pay off the national debt by 2013

Set aside 15-16% of budget surplus to fix Medicare

Balance or surplus except in crises.