News Analysis: Surplus Feast - Will Tax-Cut Appetizer Leave Room for Debt-Slice Dessert? But very little in Washington is exactly what it seems, and this is no exception. Paying down the debt and "saving Social Security first" became, in the Clinton years, Democratic ideas, which Mr. Bush is now paying homage to in an effort to win over Democrats and secure quick passage of his tax cut. The details released today, however, suggest something a bit more subtle. Mr. Bush has now redefined the national debt, so that it looks more manageable. And Mr. Bush's aides are arguing that it does not need to be paid off so fast � which, conveniently, leaves them a bit more room for their own favorite programs, like a national missile defense, new spending on education and creating private Social Security accounts. All of this raises two questions: Which party is pursuing the more conservative course? And what does it say about the ideology of George W. Bush, whose "compassionate conservatism" seemed at times an effort to dress up the philosophy of Ronald Reagan in the moderate poll- tested oratory of Bill Clinton? http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/01/politics/01ASSE.html?pagewanted=all

Civil Works and Loans Targeted in Bush Plan President Bush's budget includes proposals to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for rural development, loan guarantees for small businesses, research on advanced technology, public housing and construction of the international space station. The cuts would affect programs at the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy and Transportation, as well as the Small Business Administration. In addition, Mr. Bush's budget shows that he wants to slow the growth of Medicare, slicing about 5 percent from the amounts that would be spent under current law in the coming decade. He did not say how he would achieve those savings, other than to promise that he would "modernize and reform Medicare," the health insurance program for 39 million people who are elderly or disabled. While Mr. Bush did propose a substantial increase in spending for the Education Department, Democrats said it was a much smaller increase than Congress approved for the current year. By the administration's reckoning, the department's budget would rise 11.5 percent, to $44.5 billion in 2002, compared with an increase of 35.7 percent this year. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/01/politics/01CUTS.html?pagewanted=all

Panel Calls for Reparations in Tulsa Race Riot "They came in the house with torches, and my mother hid us four wee children under the bed," Mr. Monroe said. "They set the curtains on fire and, as one guy was leaving, he stepped on my fingers. My little sister slapped her hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming out." "That's what I remember most, my little sister's hand slapped over my mouth." And as Mr. Monroe, now 84, watched the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921 deliver its final report at a news conference today � recommending that reparations be paid to survivors and their descendants � he was feeling stifled once again. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/01/national/01TULS.html?pagewanted=all

News Analysis: Bush Makes a Narrow Focus on a Few Signature Issues While Mr. Bush in his speech tonight talked about issues like rebuilding the military, encouraging charitable contributions and fighting rising energy prices and racial profiling, he stopped short of offering an array of new programs and mini- initiatives. He talked of a government that was "active but limited." Much the same could have been said of his speech. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/28/politics/28ASSE.html?pagewanted=all

What's His Pledge Really Worth

Bush Underlines Pledge About Social Security But, as Al Gore repeatedly pointed out during the campaign, Mr. Bush presented his plan as all gain and nopain, sidestepping the debate over whether restoring Social Security's health would require steps like cutting the guaranteed benefit, reducing cost of living increases for beneficiaries or raising the retirement age. Mr. Bush also remained quiet during the campaign, and again tonight, on how the government would pay for the creation of the private accounts. Analysts put the cost at $1 trillion over the next decade. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/28/politics/28POLI.html?pagewanted=all

But Yesterday, Before the Speech

The administration's budget anticipates paying down $2 trillion in public debt that matures no later than 2011 out of the part of the projected surplus coming from Social Security � about $2.5 trillion out of the total surplus of $5.6 trillion. The debt held by the public excludes $2.5 trillion the government owes to itself, largely in the form of promises to pay future Social Security benefits. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/27/politics/27BUDG.html?pagewanted=all

Wealthiest Pay Declining Share of Their Incomes in Taxes The richest Americans are paying a declining share of their incomes in taxes, even as their incomes grow more rapidly than everyone else's, according to data that the Internal Revenue Service gave a Republican member of Congress. The 1998 incomes, after taxes, of the top 1 percent of taxpayers increased at more than three times the rate of the bottom 90 percent, according to an analysis of this data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research organization in Washington that seeks to advance the interests of the poor. Over a longer period, from 1989 to 1998, the incomes of the richest 1 percent, adjusted for inflation, grew about eight times as fast. But the share of their income they paid in federal taxes in 1998 was at its lowest level since 1992, the year before Congress added two higher tax brackets that apply only to top earners. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/26/business/26RICH.html?pagewanted=all

Millions Eligible for Food Stamps Aren't Applying "There is no reason that any American in 2001 should go hungry," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana, who is chairman of the Agriculture Committee. "States should do everything possible to make certain that those who qualify for food stamps know it and are enrolled if they so choose. That was the intent of the law." Yet that has not happened in most states. Despite studies warning that bureaucratic hurdles discourage the poor from applying for food stamps, states have been wary of streamlining their application processes. A major reason, some critics say, is that states fear they will be penalized by the federal government for giving recipients too much in food stamps � or too little. In 1996, Arizona was fined $21 million because of the high number of errors its social workers made in calculating the size of benefits. Those complicated calculations are based on mandates drawn up by the Agriculture Department to deter fraud. But as a result, many states require the poor to fill out long applications and visit welfare offices every three months to make sure the benefits are correct. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/26/national/26FOOD.html?pagewanted=all