Across the Nation

PAC to allow McCain to push reforms

McCain is expected to give the final go-ahead on the project when he returns to work next week, the advisers said yesterday, speaking only on condition of anonymity.

They also said the Arizona senator is still in no hurry to endorse George W. Bush.

The two-term Texas governor, who now has clinched the GOP nomination, is eager to mend fences with McCain and forge an alliance that could help attract independents and Democrats to the GOP ticket in the fall. The Arizonan had enormous success with voters who normally don't vote in GOP primaries, but he couldn't overcome Bush's stranglehold over party regulars and social conservatives.

McCain is now mulling his next step, as he prepares to return to the Senate on Monday.

Advisers say the most likely option is the formation of a political action committee that would accept limited, regulated "hard money" donations - as opposed to the more freewheeling "soft money" contributions that McCain is trying to ban.

Purchasing trends cause trade deficit

WASHINGTON - American consumers' buying spree of foreign goods from TVs to cars last year led to an immense increase in the trade deficit - up more than 50 percent to a record high of $338.9 billion.

The deficit in the "current account," which measures not only trade in goods and service but also investment flows and foreign aid payments, grew by 53.7 percent from the previous record, a $220.6 billion imbalance in 1998, the Commerce Department said yesterday.

The hefty $118.4 billion deterioration in the current account deficit is the one bit of tarnish on an otherwise sterling, record-breaking U.S. economy, which celebrated its ninth year of uninterrupted growth in March.

While all categories measured showed deterioration in 1999, America's deficit in goods widened the most - by $100.2 billion to $347.1 billion - as U.S. consumers snapped up TVs, cars and other merchandise flowing into the U.S. from overseas' producers.

With plentiful jobs, rising incomes, low inflation and stock market gains, Americans feel wealthy and in the buying mood, economists said.

''U.S. consumers have a strong appetite for everything,'' said Gerald Cohen, economist at Merrill Lynch.

House GOP turns down Bush tax plan

WASHINGTON - House Republicans were offered a chance yesterday to give a full-throated endorsement of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's $1.3 trillion, 10-year tax cut plan. They respectfully declined.

At issue was the new budget resolution being written by Congress. At a meeting of the House Budget Committee, Democrats tried to tweak their Republican counterparts by forcing a vote on including Bush's tax plan in the budget; as Democrats know very well, the plan is now too costly even by congressional GOP standards.