Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget

Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand

By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01

When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.

Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.