Bush appears to be settling for different, not lower, taxes because of huge deficit. - GOP & tax increases with social security.

The U.S. budget deficit, exacerbated by the high costs of expanding the Defense Department and funding the two largest U.S. entitlement programs -- Medicare and Social Security -- is forcing President Bush and Republican lawmakers to temper their antitax ambitions.

White House aides say that the president's only new tax initiative for the second term -- a broad restructuring of the tax code -- will be crafted in a way that results in a simpler system, not lower taxes. At the same time, Bush's call for Congress to make permanent all the tax cuts enacted in his first term faces increasingly strong resistance among some Republicans concerned about rising deficits.

For the first time in years, some Senate Republicans are even calling for an increase in taxes as a way to pay for the restructuring of Social Security, something the president hasn't ruled out.

(The Washington Post, 3-7-05.)