Mr. Gore and other Democrats warned then that Mr. Bush's proposed tax cut would squander the federal surplus and eat into Social Security.
If someone were to get sick from eating surplus meat, for example, both sides need to be absolutely clear where the responsibility lies.
Swift makes the very immodest suggestion of eating surplus children to ease the economic burden of his country, and uses logical language and arguments of the time to justify the proposal.
Consider eating a surplus of calories each day to keep gaining strength and muscle mass.
"I was going to wear Army surplus clothes and eat beans and be a kind of middle-class Thoreau," he once said.
It now expects most or all of that surplus to be eaten up by higher than expected costs and lower than expected real estate tax revenues.
It shows three years of deficits followed by at least another seven years in which much of the money assumed to be reserved for debt reduction -- the Social Security surplus -- is eaten up by other needs, primarily last year's tax cut and increased military spending.
It's a win-win model: the kitchen growers have the satisfaction of seeing their surplus food being eaten, and enjoyed.
"We're already eating up the surplus, and the federal government has a war effort to pay for," he said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sees tens of millions of dollars in extra gas costs eating into its surplus, and with schools about to open in New York City, bus operators fear gas prices will drive them out of business.
But as Gore advisers realized they could attack the plan both from the left (as jeopardizing Medicaid) and from the right (as eating up the surplus), they came to see the issue as a net positive for Gore.
