Bush budget plan gets easier

President Bush would try to keep his promise to balance the budget within five years in part by again delaying his plan to add private accounts to
Social Security.

The step is a bow to political reality that also makes it easier to erase the deficit without draconian cuts to federal benefit programs. Bush's Social Security plan bogged down under a Republican-controlled Congress less than two years ago.

Now that Democrats are in charge, private accounts are a nonstarter, though Bush will leave at least a placeholder in his budget plan rather than abandon them entirely.

Combined with above-average growth in tax revenues — and continued pressure on domestic agency budgets — the decision to purge costs associated with his plan for private accounts makes it much easier to achieve balance without politically dangerous cuts to Medicare or other programs popular with the public.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_budget_2