Memo to: President From: Fellow Execs

Top U.S. executives overwhelmingly want President Bush reelected, even though they say he is wrong to put tax cutting ahead of reducing government deficits, according to a new survey released Friday.

Only one executive in five believes that Bush can cut taxes in a second four-year term, and 79% said in a survey conducted for Reuters and the PBS show “The Nightly Business Report” that cutting the federal budget deficit was more important than reducing taxes.

The telephone survey of 371 executives was conducted by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman between Aug. 24 and Sept. 9. The sampling error for the results was plus or minus 5%.

About 58% of the executives said it is impossible to cut both taxes and the government’s budget deficits simultaneously, as Bush has proposed. Thirty-nine percent believe that both can be done at the same time, and 3% were unsure.