Dear Chris,
It seems that the answer is positive.
In a campaign ad in 2000, the Bush campaign announced:
"The Bush plan reserves $2 trillion of the surplus to protect and
strengthen Social Security and pay down the national debt. The rest
is dedicated to priorities--education, rebuilding our military, and
providing a real tax cut for every taxpayer."
(SOURCE: Bush for President, Inc. "Surplus" , 30 sec. TV spot run in
NH latter part of Jan. 2000. Maverick Media, George Washington
University's "Democracy in Action"
<http://www.gwu.edu/~action/ads2/bushsurplus.html>).
This is a persentation by the Democratic Party on the question of the
usage of the surplus, 2002:
<http://www.senate.gov/~budget/democratic/charts/2002/bushbudgetpacket020402.pdf>
Some of the surplus apparently "shrunk" as a result of the tax-cuts,
that reduced the projected amount:
"Adjusting for these factors significantly affects projections of the
surplus. In January 2001, when President Bush took office and the
debate over EGTRRA began, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
projected a ten-year surplus of $5.6 trillion. Removing the retirement
programs would have reduced the surplus by $2.3 trillion. Adjusting
for the AMT and expiring provisions and maintaining real discretionary
spending per capita would have yielded a remaining "available surplus"
of just $1.6 trillion (see Brookings Policy Brief #76, April 2001)."
(SOURCE: William G. Gale and Samara R. Potter, "The Bush Tax Cut: One
Year Later", June 2002, Brookings Institution,
<http://www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb101.htm>).
Economist Paul krugman apparently perdicted that the tax-cuts,
alongside unexpected spendings, would bring about a serious depicit.
Paul Krugman, BUSH'S BUDGET BLUES (8/21/02)
<http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/budget.html>
A commentary in "Common ense" magazine claims the same thing:
"Recall first that Bush pere passed on to Clinton a swollen deficit:
8% of the GDP. (Not to mention the worrisome legacy of Reaganomics.)
At his second term?s close, Clinton had steered the budget safely out
of the red, leaving Bush fils a hefty surplus. On the other hand, he
inherited the beleaguered Social Security and Medicare systems. On top
of that: an economy on the wane, a stock market bubble about to burst,
and a government on a borrowing binge of $1 billion a day from abroad.
In other hands, the surplus might have been used to repair our aging
infrastructure, to bolster Medicare or Social Security, to lessen the
cost of prescription drugs, and so on. But the surplus, to our lasting
dismay, was not in other hands?it was in Bush?s, in the Republicans?,
and thus has been utterly wiped out by tax cuts which Bush, like
Reagan, implemented fresh after inauguration. As he did then, Bush
marshals the same slippery logic to prop up his latest tax plan."
(SOURCE: BJ Straw, "The Perils of the Bush Tax Plan", Common Sense,
October 2003, <http://www.nd.edu/~com_sens/issues/v18/1/strew.html>).
In February 2002, Duncan Hughes wrote for the Scotsman that "With the
precision of a laser-guided ?bunker buster?, the Bush administration
has struck deep inside its disappearing budget surplus to provide the
Pentagon with a $2 trillion budget." (SOURCE: Duncan Hughes, "Bush
raids budget surplus to fund $2 trillion defence spend", Scotsdman, 10
February 2002 <http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=373&id=157572002>).
Lately, in an "Associated Press" analysis, David Espo wrote:
"Bush inherited a surplus when he took office, and now says his goal
is to reduce this year?s record anticipated deficit, $521 billion, by
half at the end of a second term. That doesn?t count additional
spending for post-war Iraq, though, as much as another $50 billion
come next January. In any event Bush blames a recession that started
before he took office and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks for the
rise in red ink."
(SOURCE: David Espo, "Budget politics: Plenty for all sides to
campaign about", Associated Press - reproduced in several sites, among
them PJ Star, <http://www.pjstar.com/services/news/usbudget/politics.html>).
I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.
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