For GOP, an evolving position on the deficit
NEW YORK -- This sentence is conspicuously missing from the 2004 Republican Party platform: ''We reaffirm our support for a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget."
Four years ago, that was a proud platform statement of a core principle of the Republican Party, embraced by its nominee, George W. Bush. It also was the first tenet of the party's so-called Contract With America. But the budget deficit under Bush has soared to a record $481 billion, and the push for a balanced budget amendment has been dropped unceremoniously. Instead, the platform says the deficit is ''unwelcome but manageable."
The change may say as much about Bush and his party as do the nationally televised speeches -- few of which, if any, deal with the deficit. It is an acknowledgment that Bush, who came into office with a budget surplus, has been overwhelmed by the expenses of counterterrorism efforts, wars, and his tax cuts -- as well as increased spending in domestic programs.
But to a small band of Republicans who still speak loudly about the deficit, the party's transformation on the issue leaves them despondent. Former US senator Warren Rudman, the New Hampshire Republican who is cochairman of the antideficit Concord Coalition, opted to skip the convention for the first time in 20 years. Told that the platform describes the deficit as ''manageable," he said, bristling, ''All of the independent economists say it is not being managed."
On Monday, Bush was asked during an NBC-TV interview whether deficits matter. He responded that they matter ''in the long run."
''I've laid out a specific plan that shows the deficit being reduced by half in five years," Bush said. ''And it's going to require fiscal sanity in Washington."
Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry has proposed halving the deficit in four years. Kerry has called for restoring the ''pay as you go" budget, in which new proposals must be paid for through cuts in other programs or through new or transferred revenues.
If the deficit continues to grow, Kerry has said, it will be ''a fiscal cancer that will erode any recovery and threaten the prospect of a lasting prosperity."
But Phil Smith, an organizer with the Concord Coalition who came to New York earlier this week to talk to GOP convention delegates about the deficit, said neither party has embraced a solid plan for deficit reduction. Smith said that he encountered indifference among Republican delegates and that he is skeptical about whether Democrats are interested in using the issue beyond a campaign talking point.
''I'm disappointed so many Republicans have abandoned fiscal responsibility," Smith said. ''I'm also highly suspicious of our new friends, the Democrats."
Bush arrived in office with a budget surplus of $124 billion for fiscal 2001. All budget figures in this story are in 2000 dollars, to adjust for inflation. His aides have said the counterterrorism efforts, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the tax cuts, and the slower-than-expected economic recovery have created the record deficit.
But Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Bush also has overseen a record increase in spending, with government spending at an average of $20,000 per household, the highest since World War II when adjusted for inflation. Riedl said spending under the Bush administration has increased 25 percent in the last four years, with only about half of that due to increased costs of homeland security and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Much of the increase is attributable to rises in spending on education, Medicare, and other federal programs, he said.
''Many conservatives are disappointed that spending has increased as fast as it has under President Bush," Riedl said. ''If spending increases as it is, I am concerned that tax increases will be necessary."
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com
