BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt said in Cincinnati on Monday that he expects more attempts by congressional Republicans to use the federal surplus for tax cuts.
"Without Social Security, there is no surplus, and we are not going to let them put Social Security at risk," said Mr. Gephardt, who was campaigning with Mayor Roxanne Qualls, the Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District.
Speaking to a group of about 30 seniors at the Pipefitters Local 392 hall on Central Parkway, Mr. Gephardt said that if House Republicans had been successful in spending 10 percent of the projected federal budget surplus over the next five years for a series of tax cuts, "they would be back for more."
The House passed a plan in September to use about $80 billion of a projected federal surplus over five years for tax cuts. Ms. Qualls' opponent, Republican incumbent Steve Chabot, supported the plan.
House Democrats said the entire surplus should be set aside until Congress comes up with a plan to make Social Security solvent well into the next century. President Clinton threatened to veto the bill and it died in the GOP-controlled Senate, at least for this session of Congress.
But Mr. Gephardt said Monday he expects the Republicans to try again.
"If we had let them take 10 percent now, there is nothing to stop them from coming back and taking 10 percent more and then 10 percent more," Mr. Gephardt said. "If they do come back, we will say, "Keep your hands off of it.' "
Most political observers think the Republicans will still control the House after Tuesday's election, and probably even expand their majority
But Mr. Gephardt, a St. Louis Democrat, said the Democrats "only have to pick up 11 seats (to regain control), and I think we can do that."
If the Democrats did regain the House majority they lost four years ago, Mr. Gephardt would likely be speaker.
He is also considered a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000.
Last week, most Democrats and Republicans in the House came together on a $520 billion budget agreement, one that Mr. Chabot voted against because he said it used $20 billion of next year's projected $70 billion budget surplus on a spending package Mr. Chabot described as "full of pork."
Monday, Mr. Gephardt argued that the $20 billion "one-time, emergency spending" was allowed for in the 1997 balanced budget resolution and does not constitute a "raid" on the budget surplus. Much of the money goes for emergency aid to drought-stricken farmers, an expense he said "wouldn't have been necessary if the Republicans in Congress had done their jobs and passed a decent farm bill."
