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Adam CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 even wants to play music in uni versity elevators. He believes with all the resources USC has that the university should stop tuition from increasing. His big goal is to integrate USC with the world in order to form strong relationships that will benefit everyone. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Questions A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CANDIDATES What Is in your CD player right now? Bob Marley What’s the last book you read? “Dune” by Frank Herbert What’s your favorite place to eat on campus? “Taco Bell - well,.I just like eating.” Who Is your hero? “Bob Marley, because he can make people happy through music.” What’s the best class you’ve taken at USC? Creative Writing 360 with Greer. Scott CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 tors to prevent further cuts to higher education. Scott is one of seven people in the state charged with putting together this col laboration. He also wants to target park ing, block seating at athletic events and campus safety. Safety is a strong concern for Scott, who has worked as a medium between the students and student organizations to help shape safety policies since his appointment to USC’s safety committee. i Scott said he believes he's the best candidate for president be cause his platform takes into consideration the university as a whole. But he added that he's still learning. “No matter what you're in volved in, it should be a contin uous learning process,” he said. “If I knew everything, I'd get bored.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Williams CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 ing more call boxes and getting better lighting. For parking, Williams plans to let the students choose be tween three of his solutions. First is to lobby for more park ing, which he says is very diffi cult-to do. Secondly, more lots could be created on the outskirts of the campus so that students could be bused in. But the easiest solution, according to Williams, is to restrict freshman parking. Williams said even though some incoming freshmen might be turned off to the third idea, the solution will make life easier for current students. “Why are we concerned with students who aren’t here? The people who are here right now are the most important,” he said. Williams is also very con cerned about extra charges for students who opt to take more than 16 credit hours. The way Williams sees it, stu dents shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to finish their degrees in four years when most degrees, if the student takes only 12 to 15 credit hours a semester to avoid the extra fees, will take five years. “It would be hard to get the change... but SG should be the go between,” he said. “Students need to know what they’re getting.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Questions A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CANDIDATES What is In your CD player right now? Marvin Sapp’s “Diary of a Psalmist” What’s the last book you read? “How to Make Black America Better” byTavis Smiley What’s your favorite place to eat on campus? Immaculate Consumption and California Dreaming Who Is your hero? His parents. "They set the standard for me.” What’s the best class you’ve taken at USC? JOUR 201 with Sonja Duhe Democrats to emphasize record deficit in election BY ALAN FRAM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Democrats are honing an election-year strat egy of using record federal deficits to try and undermine the credibility of President Bush and Congress’ majority Republicans. The GOP will write Congress’ budget this year, a process that starts next week when legislators return from their President’s Day recess. But Democrats plan to in troduce their own fiscal blueprints exceeding Bush’s goal of halving deficits infive years — with at least one Democratic bud get claiming balance in a decade. Democrats say this will help them underscore the budget’s screaming freefall under Bush, which they say is emblematic of his mishandling of the economy. They hope that will feed doubts about his credibility, which flow chiefly from his decision to in vade Iraq and his National Guard service during the Vietnam War. “The deficit is going to be a symbol of their credibility prob lem, and the budget is going to be the document we use” to make that argument, said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Dl., a member of the House Budget Committee who in the 1990’s was a White House po litical aide to President Clinton. “It’s kind of like Bonnie and Clyde complaining about bank ing laws,” countered Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla„ evoking the 1930s bank robbers. “I don’t think they have a lot of credibility about deficits” be cause most Democrats want to raise spending, he said. The numbers are stark. A record $237 billion federal sur plus in 2000 under President Clinton lurched abruptly to a $375 billion deficit last year, the largest ever in dollar terms. The administration expects a worse still $521 billion shortfall this year. Bush sent lawmakers a budget on Feb. 2 that proposes halving the gap to $237 billion by 2009. Worried about alienating con servatives, top Republicans want to cut more spending and erase more red ink than Bush proposed — if they can find enough votes from nervous GOP moderates to do so. Nine months from Election Day, the public’s faith in Bush as a fiscal manager may already be eroding. An ABC News Washington Post poll conducted last month showed 36 percent of respondents trust Bush to do a better job of handling budget deficits, while 52 percent prefer congressional Democrats. Republicans blame the deficits largely on the recession. Bush has addressed the more impor tant challenges of reviving the economy, waging war and thwarting terrorists, they say. “The president’s credibility will be evident in results, and we’re moving from recession to recovery, we’re strengthening national security and protecting the homeland,” said Bush cam paign spokesman Terry Holt. On the campaign trail, presi dential rivals Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Edwards, D N.C., are criticizing Bush over the budget. Kerry is pledging to at least halve the shortfall and Edwards is promising smaller deficits each year. In Congress, Democrats are contrasting the surging red ink with Bush’s assurances in 2001 — his first year in the White House — that he could cut taxes, shrink the accumulated nation al debt and produce annual sur pluses indefinitely. Governors want details on war BY ROBERT TANNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Governors worried about increasing de mands on National,Guard units want to hear from the Bush ad ministration about its long-term strategy in the fight against ter rorism. State leaders raised their con cerns in a private meeting with the top Guard general and Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge. “It’s not that we’re not support ive of the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq,” said Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. “We have to kind of step back and re think the whole picture.” Like oth er governors, he said the part-time soldiery has seen a transformation in recent years. Guard and Reserve soldiers make up about 22 percent the forces in Iraq. That level is ex pected to rise to nearly 40 percent as a result of force rotations in the coming months. Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, which oversees all reserve forces, made a private presentation to governors at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. The governors, who are hop ing to hear about this issue when they meet with President Bush on Monday, were attending a White House dinner Sunday night. The military demands in Iraq and Afghanistan give governors, who technically are comman ders in chief of their state units, a heightened interest in the de velopment of U.S. foreign policy.