The government's own experts
say they are projecting the government to run a surplus of $4.6
trillion in the next ten years. A trillion is a thousand billion.
A projection is an estimate of what will happen in the future,
based on what happened in the past. Mr. Bush, shown here waving
a dollar bill at a political rally, thinks the government should
give a lot of the money back to taxpayers. Mr. Gore also wants
to give some of the money back to people who pay taxes, but not
as much money as Mr. Bush wants to give back. Some experts say
neither candidate should be planning to spend so much of these
projected surpluses just yet.  Top of page Copyright ©2000 Knowledge Unlimited, Inc. |
Both
George W. Bush and Al Gore are talking a lot these days about
a surplus. A surplus is an extra supply of something, or something
more than is needed. The surplus they are talking about is in
the U.S. budget, the government's plan for getting and spending
money. For the third year in a row, our government's budget has
had a surplus - that is, it took in more money than it spent.
The government gets most of its money through taxes on income,
businesses, and other things. Having surpluses is very different
from the previous 30 years, when the government ran up deficits
each year. In a budget, a deficit is spending more money than
is taken in. Sometimes, these deficits were huge.