WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, heading back to work with Congress, minimized the end-of-summer budget dilemma that has Republicans looking at deeper tax cuts and Democrats warning of a crisis in Social Security.

``If Washington would only prioritize, we've got plenty of money to spend in Washington, D.C.,'' Bush told union workers at Labor Day rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on the eve of Congress' return to the capitol Tuesday.

Squeezed by a shrinking budget surplus and limping economy, Bush was meeting Tuesday with Senate Republican leader Trent Lott to plot strategy for what promises to be a contentious fight over the 13 spending bills that the House, Senate and president must approve in order to keep the government running after Sept. 30.

Republicans, particularly in the House, want Bush to support a cut in the capital gains tax, believing it will stimulate the economy. And Lott, R-Miss., is considering whether to propose linking a capital gains tax cut to a Democratic-backed minimum wage increase.

Democrats long have resisted capital gains tax cuts, saying the rich would benefit more than most. During the August congressional recess, Democrats blamed the tax cut package that Bush pushed into law earlier this year for evaporating the budget surplus and threatening to invade Social Security surpluses.

Bush scorned ``second-guessers'' on his tax cut, saying: ``The best thing we can do is ask the question, how do we make sure our economy grows? And I came up with this answer. Our economy can grow best when we give people their own money back.''

He said he refuses to consider tax increases as a means of easing the budget crunch because to do so would be ``the absolute worst thing'' that could happen to the economy. But, in his two Labor Day speeches, Bush did not indicate a position on GOP proposals to cut the capital gains tax.

Later Tuesday, Bush was also sitting down one-on-one with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., who is insisting that Bush rewrite his 2002 budget to fit new, much smaller surplus projections.

In that meeting, plus a separate one later this week with House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, Bush hoped to head off any budget stalemate.

Separating himself from what he called Washington's ``fancy footwork people,'' Bush promised workers on Monday that he has the prescription for economic recovery - if only they will be patient.

``We've got some problems on the horizon,'' the president said. ``One of my jobs is not to shirk problems, it's to deal with them.''