US: On the eve of "Super Tuesday", President Bush gave Democratic candidates ample ammunition to attack his economic policies by announcing a budget that sends the deficit soaring to a staggering $521 billion.
Cutbacks in spending to cope with the deficit created an immediate furore in Congress, where Senator Edward Kennedy called it the "most anti-family, anti-worker, anti-healthcare, anti-education budget in modern times." The issue was taken up by the democratic front-runner in today's Democratic contests in seven states, Senator John Kerry, who accused the administration of spending $1 billion more every day than it takes in.
"I predict today, like father, like son, one term only, Bush is going to be done," Mr Kerry forecast, echoing a growing conviction among Democrats that Mr Bush's declining popularity makes him vulnerable in November. A CNN poll yesterday showed that in a hypothetical match-up Mr Kerry would beat Mr Bush by 53 to 46 per cent.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean said, "Bush is promising a trillion-dollar tax cut and a trip to Mars and he has a half-trillion-dollar deficit."
Mr Bush projected that the deficit in the current year would hit $521 billion, surpassing last year's record of $374 billion, but promised the deficit would gradually decline to $237 billion in 2009.
The deficit figures are much higher than the administration projected last summer, partly because the estimate of the 10-year cost of the Medicare prescription drug bills passed in November jumped from $400 billion to $534 billion. Democratic National Committee chairman Mr Terry McAuliffe said the administration's suddenly higher Medicare estimate raised the same questions about credibility as did its changing justifications for going to war in Iraq and that "the president has misled us day in and day out".
The $2.4 trillion budget features big increases for defence and homeland security spending and reductions in scores of government programmes and in seven cabinet-level agencies, topped by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"Our nation remains at war," Mr Bush said in his budget message. "This nation has committed itself to the long war against terror." Mr Bush is boosting military spending by 7 per cent next year, excluding the cost of keeping troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, for which a separate request will be sent to Congress after the election.
The budget will be a hot topic in the presidential election, especially as Mr Bush plans to make permanent recent tax cuts at a cost of more than $900 billion over 10 years.
Eve-of-election polls for "Super Tuesday" show Senator Kerry ahead in most of the states taking part: Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
Former front-runner Mr Howard Dean, who is looking beyond today's contests to Michigan, Washington State and Maine this weekend to keep his hopes alive, has attacked Mr Kerry for his financial ties with special interests, saying, "He misrepresented himself, grossly misrepresented himself, as a candidate who would take on special interests in Washington."
Mr Kerry responded that he "fought powerful special interests every step of the way".
Senator John Edwards, who must win South Carolina to stay in the race, also criticised Mr Kerry yesterday for accepting contributions from lobbyists and supporting trade pacts that he says cost US jobs.
Retired general Mr Wesley Clark focused yesterday on Oklahoma to keep his hopes alive.
In a major boost, Mr Kerry won the backing yesterday of two major unions, the National Treasury Employees Union and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association. On Sunday, he won the endorsement of the United Farm Workers union.
The three big trade unions that backed Mr Dean when he was riding high in December are having doubts about their choice.
Mr Andy Stern, president of the huge Service Employees International Union, said if Mr Kerry wins all or most of the seven states, he could have an aura of invincibility.