President begins three-day money marathon in the West

SAN DIEGO - President Clinton, his party's fund-raiser in chief, began a three-day money marathon Thursday with a warning that even in the face of record budget surpluses, the good times can't roll forever.

''Nothing lasts forever; nothing bad, nothing good,'' Clinton told a Democratic audience in Phoenix.

First in Phoenix, then in San Diego, Clinton warned that huge budget surpluses may not materialize. He declared that since that is the case, the huge tax cuts and spending programs proposed by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, are imprudent and risky.

''I say again, this surplus is projected,'' Clinton said, at a fund-raiser for Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif. ''We don't have this money yet. How in the world can we give it away?''

And at every speech Clinton tried various versions of this line: ''You don't have to go out and say anything bad about the Republicans; all you have to do is tell the truth about the differences between the two parties. And if you tell the truth and the people listen, the Democrats will win.''

As he has been doing with heightened rhetoric in recent days, Clinton took several swipes at the tax cuts favored by congressional Republicans and Bush, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate,

''There's no question it will be very appealing for the Republicans, beginning with the nominee for president, to say, 'Hey, vote for us and we'll give you a tax cut worth over a trillion dollars over the next 10 years and we can easily afford it because we're going to have such big surpluses,''' Clinton said.

Vice President Al Gore is much more prudent, and would not spend money he might not have, Clinton continued.

''The truth is, you don't know any more than I do whether we're going to have all that money over the next 10 years,'' Clinton said.

The president made the same point before leaving the White House on Thursday morning, even as he noted with satisfaction that estimates of the nation's already soaring budget surpluses are projected to rise again.

Sources told The Associated Press that Clinton will soon announce a projected surplus of $1.9 trillion over the next decade. Clinton himself used that figure in passing in another political speech in Washington on Wednesday night.

''Just because some economist says we're going to have $1.9 trillion over the next 10 years doesn't mean it's going to happen,'' he said then.

The figure is more than double the $746 billion the administration projected in February. The figures exclude Social Security.

Clinton planned 11 speeches in Arizona and California, all but one of them fund-raising pitches, before returning to Washington on Saturday night.

His back-to-back appearances at a reception and lunch at a posh hotel in Phoenix were expected to raise $500,000 for the Democratic National Committee.

The DNC will reimburse the government for Clinton's travels and pay the cost of a first-class airplane ticket for White House staff accompanying him, said DNC spokesman Rick Hess. It is a payment system instituted during the Reagan presidency, he said.

''Whenever the president travels outside Washington, D.C., to raise money for the DNC, the DNC is fully responsible for paying the U.S. government the costs of transportation in accordance with government rules,'' he said.