House Democrats hammer on budget

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- House Democrats used a dwindling budget surplus to go after the GOP Thursday, arguing that President Bush failed to take into account a recession, war and other factors when he pushed through his massive tax cut last year.

House Budget Committee Ranking Member John Spratt, D-S.C., said the budget would eat surplus money raised by Social Security payments and drive deficit spending in the coming years -- just as the baby boomers will begin to retire around 2008.

"He needs to ask himself if he wants to see two terms and retire and have to say to the baby boomers, 'Sorry, we did not do a thing to plan for your retirement,'" Spratt said about Bush.

Republicans have long said the recession, and not the tax cut, are sucking away government receipts and eating away the budget surplus. They have also argued that Social Security is not really at risk, because the government will make Social Security payments even if surplus money raised by paycheck payments is not set aside in the federal budget.

President Bush and his economic team have also said from the beginning they would deliver a budget that would not use funds set aside for Social Security -- unless the economy drifted into a recession or at wartime. Both have occurred.

The Social Security funds at issue are simply funds raised by Social Security paycheck payments that Republicans and Democrats have previously agreed should not be used to pay for other priorities in the budget, even though they amount to a surplus over and above regular spending on federal programs. Using those funds for regular spending on other programs, however, does not directly affect Social Security payments.

But Democrats have said that setting them aside is key for the long-term solvency of Social Security and Bush should have left more room in the budget for unforeseen circumstances.

"It isn't that we are just saying this now," Spratt said. "We said it at the time (the tax cut passed). 'You are leaving no margin for error.'"

"I think if we have learned anything for the last 12 months, it is that we can not have it all," Spratt said.

In the closely divided Senate, 12 Democrats voted for Bush's tax cut.

Democrats have aggressively gone on the offensive over the past weeks in an attempt to paint Republicans as irresponsible on the budget and economic issues. Social Security has long been considered a hot-button issue in political debate.