Many Democrats in Congress are insisting that the tax legislation not skew the cuts to favor the wealthy at the expense of the poor and working classes.

Critics say the cuts will favor the wealthy, and even Mr. Marani noted the cutbacks would sting.

So any cut will favor them.

Referring to criticism that his cuts favored police officers, whose union has been supportive of him, Mr. Giuliani said the police would take on duties from other agencies, including the Transportation Department and the Taxi Commission.

So far, at least, Mr. Bush does not appear to have persuaded the nation that the way to repair the economy is a new round of tax cuts, or that the cuts he has proposed would not favor the wealthy.

Mr. Tsongas and Mr. Clinton differed sharply back then over tax policy, with Mr. Tsongas opposing any cuts and Mr. Clinton favoring a cut for the middle class.

Yet these cuts overwhelmingly favor high-income Americans, who feel the pain of a recession least and whose spending is least influenced by tax cuts.

Such a cut would disproportionately favor the rich, as did President Reagan's 1981 tax cut.

Opponents of income tax cuts say such cuts favor the wealthy and hurt the less affluent.

Also favors large cuts in strategic nuclear warheads.