LEVELAND - Al Gore will tie together his economic proposals today in a speech highlighting his interest in paying off the national debt, increasing personal savings, and establishing a $300 billion reserve fund to guard against budget shortfalls.
In remarks at Cleveland State University, Gore will ''show how all the pieces fit together, to not overshoot the mark of a tax cut for the wealthy that really overwhelms the surplus,'' the Democratic presidential contender pledged yesterday after touring a high-tech marketing firm in Columbus, Ohio.
A senior campaign adviser, Ron Klain, said the speech would include 10 economic goals for the country. They are expected to include reducing the poverty rate, paying off the national debt by 2012, and doubling the number of families with $50,000 in savings by 2010.
Key to the plan is using conservative revenue projections when writing budgets, and then setting aside any unexpected income in a rainy-day fund. The campaign said the fund could reach $300 billion within a decade, a figure that would mirror the gap between the $2.2 trillion surplus projected by the Congressional Budget Office and the $1.9 trillion surplus projected by the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
''The Gore economic approach is predicated on balancing the budget, paying down the debt, spending within our means, and investing wisely in our priorities,'' said another adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Taking a shot at the campaign's Republican rivals, Klain said Gore's plan would differ from the ''fantasy accounting'' used by the Bush campaign.
In its defense, the Bush campaign released a general review of its spending and said Gore ''continues to distort Governor Bush's economic plan.''
Bush campaign spokesman Dan Bartlett added: ''Governor Bush's balanced budget provides needed investments in Medicare, Social Security, education, and defense, while also providing relief for everyone paying income taxes.''
The Texas governor today plans to promote his tax-cut plan in Pennsylvania.
Bush was also buying a full-page ad in today's USA Today, with six Nobel Prize recipients and 294 economists endorsing Bush's economic plan. The ad is to run in editions of the newspaper distributed in key markets: St. Louis; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Los Angeles; and all of Florida.
After spending more than a day campaigning nonstop to commemorate Labor Day, Gore had a decidedly lighter schedule yesterday. His one public event was a visit to a Columbus marketing firm that helps established businesses use new technology.
During his visit to Resource Marketing Inc., Gore and business and academic leaders engaged in a discussion about the ''new economy'' spawned by the use of computers and the Internet. The vice president was accompanied by former US Senator John Glenn of Ohio, the first American to orbit the earth.
Located in an old plow plant, Resource Marketing helped Victoria's Secret, for example, sell its lingerie products not just in stores but also through the Internet. The company exudes creativity and unconventionality, with few ties for the men, pierced ears for both sexes, workspaces without walls, and free-roaming pets on days when the vice president isn't visiting.
Before Gore's visit, company workers took down their favorite pictures of scantily clad Victoria's Secret models, an exercise that Gore joked about indirectly when he mentioned their speedy accommodations for his last-minute visit.
The vice president said he has heard repeatedly that corporate heads have difficulty finding new employees who have the education to handle today's high-tech jobs. ''We need new job-training and education investments comparable to the G.I. Bill'' after World War II, Gore said.
Material from Associated Press was used in this report.
