The claim that President Bush's tax cuts are responsible for a budgetary swing from a surplus to deficits is essentially nonsense and the American people will not buy it.

The recession is the principal cause of lower cash flow to the government. When people lose jobs and businesses lose money, fewer taxes are paid to the federal coffers. This results in less federal tax revenues. Tax relief encourages investments that raise revenues to the government.

The current recession officially began last March, less than two months after President Bush took office. In terms of the stock market, business production and profits, it actually began near the middle of 2000, seven months before the President took office.

I am totally committed to stopping any attempts to rescind the tax cuts passed last spring. That's what President Bush meant when he declared in Portland, Oregon, that Congress will raise taxes "over my dead body." I will fight hard with him to make sure this does not happen.