WP: Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget (Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand)

Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget
Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand

By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01

When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.

Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.

"The Democrats have assailed deficits under President Bush. The White House is telling Democrats to walk the walk," said Brian M. Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Budget experts and economists from across the political spectrum, including some who worked in the Bush White House, say that Bush is unlikely to offer real concessions toward a balanced budget in the plan he delivers to Congress next month.

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Bush Policies drive surge in CORPORATE TAX FREELOADING

"82 Big U.S. Corporations Paid No Tax in One or More Bush Years"

"# Eighty-two of the 275 companies, almost a third of the total, paid zero or less infederal income taxes in at least one year from 2001 to 2003. Many of them enjoyedmultiple no-tax years. In the years they paid no income tax, these companies earned$102 billion in pretax U.S. profits. But instead of paying $35.6 billion in income taxes asthe statutory 35 percent corporate tax rate seems to require, these companiesgenerated so many excess tax breaks that they received outright tax rebate checks fromthe U.S. Treasury, totaling $12.6 billion. These companies’ “negative tax rates” meantthat they made more after taxes than before taxes in those no-tax years."

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