51.   Congress ordered the sale of strategic oil by the end of this year to raise revenue to reduce the federal deficit.

52.   Declining federal deficits have contributed to economic growth, which generated more revenue for the Treasury, which reduced the deficit further.

53.   Deficit hawks on Capitol Hill, though, want the money to reduce the federal deficit.

54.   Democrats countered that forcing the government into default will not solve the federal deficit.

55.   Declining budgets and the political war over the federal deficit, they say, threaten to erode safety and precipitate another calamity, despite all efforts to the contrary.

56.   Dole proposed Tefra two years into the Reagan Presidency as a response to the ballooning federal deficit.

57.   Democrats said a flat tax would increase the federal deficit and force middle-class taxpayers to subsidize tax breaks for the rich.

58.   Dole was campaigning in Richmond, Va., touring an affordable housing complex to underscore his contention that the federal deficit is responsible for higher interest rates.

59.   Economic predictions for the CBO were released in a report along with its federal deficit forecasts.