The Boston Globe: on Budget & Economy

Wesley Clark: Short-term deficit ok in recession, but not long-term

George W. Bush: Claims of Gore’s spending are based on inflated figures

While Bush is correct that Gore’s spending proposals exceed his, the combination of Bush’s spending plans and tax cuts would eat up more of the surplus than Gore would with his more modest tax cut and his larger spending plans.

To further complicate matters, Bush said Gore’s spending proposals are greater than the combination of what Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis proposed in 1984 and 1988, respectively. However, it appears Bush arrived at the number by using inflation-adjusted spending proposals and comparing them with estimates of Gore’s spending plans prepared by partisan groups such as the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Commitee. Gore’s total spending, according to the campaign, would be about $88 billion a year, not the $127 billion the Bush camp contends.

George W. Bush: Claim of Gore’s 20,000 new bureaucrats is unlikely

ANALYSIS: Bush is basing his claims on a partisan report by the Republican members of the Senate Budget Committee. To get their numbers, they applied today’s ratio of employees to expenditures to their own estimates of Gore’s budget. The assumption-that more spending means more employees-DOESN“T NECESSARILY FOLLOW. In fact, during the 1990s, spending went up (by 38%) while the federal work force went down (by 12%).

George W. Bush: Claim of 1/4 for important projects is overestimate

ANALYSIS: Bush’s $475 billion in spending initiatives would incur $100 billion in interest costs because that money won’t be used to pay down the debt. Adding that to his total, he’s really spending roughly $575 billion or 13% of the surplus on “important projects.” That’s SIGNIFCANTLY LESS than the “1/4 of the surplus” that he claimed. And his $1.3 trillion tax cut, plus the $300 billion interest cots it would require, would eat up about 35% of the available surplus, a LOT MORE than the 1/4 he claims.

Donald Trump: One-time 14.25% tax on wealth, to erase national debt

He said the one-time tax package would:
• Raise $5.7 trillion to erase the nation’s debt and save $200 billion in annual interest payments
• Use the savings to save Social Security and slash taxes for the middle class
• Increase his personal tax bill by at least $725 million.