REEN BAY, Wis. - Dueling over a theme that could well determine the election, both George W. Bush and Al Gore pledged yesterday to nurture the booming economy and each cast his opponent as a wasteful spender who cannot be trusted with the federal budget.
Adopting a familiar Republican battle cry, Bush described his opponent as a ''tax and spend'' Democrat who has shed his once-moderate views. Gore, in turn, accused Bush of jeopardizing the ongoing prosperity with his proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut. ''That is why, 40 days from now, prosperity itself will be on the ballot,'' the vice president declared in Washington, D.C.
In a pair of economic speeches, each candidate emphasized his priorities, suggesting the other candidate would be unable to manage the $4.6 trillion federal budget surplus projected over the next decade.
Bush, speaking to employees at a Green Bay manufacturer, was clearly seeking to blunt the political benefits of that surplus and the nation's prosperity, issues that have been central to the Gore campaign. In a speech that focused on attacking Gore, the Texas governor made a distinction between Gore and the current administration, painting his opponent as an unreconstructed liberal out of sync with his own president.
''The vice president's spending plan proposes three times more in new spending than Bill Clinton did in 1992,'' Bush said. ''If the vice president gets elected, the era of `big government being over' is over. And so too, I fear, could be our prosperity.''
Clinton declared the death of big government in his 1996 State of the Union address, the culmination of years of trying to rid the Democratic Party of its image as wasteful and inefficient. Gore and his running mate, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, were prominent members of the so-called New Democrat movement, favoring more-centrist views and urging government ''reinvention'' to trim unwieldy bureaucracies.
But in running for election, Gore ''cast his lot with the old Democratic party,'' Bush said - a Republican refrain that was prominent in his father's first presidential race, against Michael S. Dukakis.
''He is proposing the largest increase in federal spending in 35 years, since the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson,'' Bush told the group of several hundred gathered in a warehouse of Tosca, a cheese-container manufacturer.
''For him, big government has never really been dead. It has simply been biding its time, waiting for its next chance. The vice president would like that chance to come next January,'' Bush said. ''But we have come too far, and have learned too much, to go back to the old ways of tax and spend.''
Bush gave detailed and dire statistics: that under Gore, the nation would see more than 200 new or expanded federal programs, at least 20,000 more ''Washington bureaucrats,'' a total of 412 new Medicare regulations, and ''more IRS agents, because targeted tax cuts means targeted audits.''
By contrast, Bush said his tax cut would foster further economic progress and stave off a recession. He also said his plan for Social Security would prove better for the economy, allowing younger workers to invest some earnings in the stock market. Gore, Bush said, would saddle a younger generation with bonds to pay for Social Security, and potentially raise taxes.
''In fact, while I have ruled out no new Social Security taxes, my opponent hasn't. There are only 40 days left in the campaign, and I think he ought to make his intentions clear,'' Bush said.
The Texas governor made the pitch at the start of a two-day swing through Midwestern battleground states. Today he is planning to outline his energy policy, an effort to turn the ongoing controversy over oil prices to his advantage.
Halfway across the country, Gore highlighted his pledge to pay off the national debt by 2012. In a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, Gore also accused Bush of being a big spender by proposing a $1.3 trillion tax cut that the vice president argued would have the greatest benefit for the wealthy.
''The choice we make in the next 40 days could well shape our future for the next 40 years,'' said Gore, wearing a gray business suit and reading from a TelePrompTer. ''Now is the time to pursue economic policies that are good for our families and good for business. This is not the time to invite new deficits and high interest rates that could stifle both our growth and our hopes. That is why this issue is so important. That is why, 40 days from now, prosperity itself will be on the ballot.''
The vice president recounted that when he and President Clinton took office in 1993, the federal budget was running a $290 billion annual deficit and the national debt was the largest in history. Now the country is expected to post a $268 billion surplus next year. Gore has also pledged to use the bulk of projected surpluses over the next decade for debt reduction.
He labeled interest payments on the national debt ''the third-largest federal program,'' behind Social Security and national defense.
''Think about it: We spend more on interest payments than we spend on Medicare,'' Gore said. ''It's a waste of your money, and we get nothing to show for it.''
Gore also advocated his brand of targeted tax cuts, tailored to help families saving for such things as college or paying child-care expenses.
''If we keep the right priorities, then we can cut taxes for the middle class, the people who have the hardest time paying and saving for the future,'' he said.
Turning the tables on Bush, the vice president cast his opponent as a spendthrift. His biggest complaint was with the governor's $1.3 trillion tax-cut proposal, which would cost $1.6 trillion over 10 years if debt repayment was slowed so that tax cuts could be granted.
''Consider this fact,'' Gore urged his audience of academics, college students, and political supporters: ''The other side's plan gives more in tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent - $665 billion of the surplus - than all the new money that they would invest in education, health care, prescription drugs, and national defense - combined.''
He repeated the line for emphasis, adding: ''That's not tax relief; that's a massive tax on America's potential.''
Gore also accused Bush of proposing ''hundreds of billions'' in spending on programs, transition costs for his plan to privatize a portion of Social Security, and a proposal for a ''Star Wars'' national missile defense system.
Casting himself as a hardened decision maker, the vice president said: ''I've said many times that the presidency is not a popularity contest. Sometimes you have to be willing to spend your popularity. Sometimes you have to be willing to do what's difficult or unpopular. It's always easier to spend money you don't have rather than save for a rainy day. That's how we ended up with a multitrillion-dollar national debt in the first place.''
Kornblut reported from Wisconsin; Johnson from Washington, D.C.
