White House, Democrats divided over budget deficits

White House budget director Mitchell Daniels said the dramatic decline in federal government revenues this year was mostly due to the bear market in stocks, while Senate Democrat majority leader Tom Daschle blamed the Bush adminstration's fiscal policy.

"The current shortfall represents the mirror image of the revenue explosion" that began in 1995 with the booming stock market, Daniels said in a press briefing on the White House's semiannual budget and economic forecasts.