If U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey got a dollar for every time he's called U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter a "liberal" this campaign season, he might be able to afford a home in Treesdale.

Maybe two.

The word came up repeatedly during a visit Monday by Toomey at the Butler Eagle office where he spoke of his Senate candidacy.

The 41-year-old Lehigh Valley congressman is challenging the four-term Specter for the GOP nomination in the April 27 primary.

"Arlen Specter has voted repeatedly to raise taxes and spending. On business issues, he comes down consistently on the side of organized labor," Toomey said.

"He supports taxpayer-funded abortions on demand. He fights against tort reform and medical malpractice reform and opposed school choice. Put all those together and there's nothing else you can call Arlen Specter but a liberal."

Specter, 74, who calls himself a fiscal centrist and a social moderate, has his own label for Toomey: "far out." That is to say, too far to the right; too conservative.

But Toomey, a three-term congressman, denies any extremist leanings, as charged by his opponent.

"I'm a mainstream Republican. I'm a member of the Republican wing of the Republican Party," he said. "Arlen Specter is liberal across the board, fiscally and culturally. Normally, he comes down on the side of the Democrats."

Toomey says he proudly wears the badge of "conservative."

He points to his record on cutting taxes and curbing spending in Washington. He said he enthusiastically supported President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

Last year he pushed bills that would make permanent Bush's income tax reductions of 2001 and would repeal former President Bill Clinton's tax on Social Security benefits.

"Without a doubt, the tax cuts were a big contributing factor to our economic turnaround," Toomey said. "Inflation and interest rates are low, housing starts are up, productivity is high.

"Although job growth is not as strong as I would have hoped for, I think it will be strong, shortly."

He said to ensure an even stronger job market and continued economic growth he supports even more tax cuts.

Toomey said he would like to see taxes on capital gains and dividends eliminated "to give an incentive for people to save and invest."

He blames runaway spending - not tax cuts - for the $500 billion federal deficit. And he's not afraid to blame Republicans - his fellow party that has controlled both houses of Congress and the White House for the past three years - for what he calls excessive spending.

"But the Democrats still think we're not spending enough," he said.

Toomey is quick to lump Specter with the tax-and-spenders he loathes.

He noted Specter was one of several renegade Republicans who joined with Democrats in paring down Bush's proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut package in 2001. The cuts, in the end, amounted to $1.3 trillion.

Toomey believes tax cuts coupled with spending cuts is the best medicine for the economy. He criticizes the extravagant spending stuffed in the agricultural, welfare and education budgets.

He said he would like to see discretionary spending rise by no more than 1 percent next year over the current budget.

But that will be no easy task, Toomey admits, particularly with pork barrel politics the national pastime in Washington. He calls Specter "the king of pork."

But one politician's pork is another one's "bringing home the bacon" for constituents.

Specter's supporters claim the senator's clout and seniority translate into federal dollars returned to Pennsylvania for transportation, infrastructure and other projects.

During this year's campaign, Specter has chided Toomey for repeatedly opposing appropriations bills, even when such bills provide funding for projects back home.

The Specter campaign listed nine projects in Butler County totaling more than $4.5 million, tucked inside appropriations bills last year that Toomey voted against.

Among the projects were $2.5 million for a bus transfer station in Butler and $100,000 for the Butler Area Public Library.

Toomey defended his decision as fiscally responsible.

"If it's appropriate for the federal government to pick up the bill for these projects, then there should be discussion and debate on their merits," he said. "But what we have is one giant omnibus bill filled with these projects that has broken the budget.

"What we have is a system that has exploded where appropriators are trying to buy votes. Projects get funded because politicians see it as an advantage. It's a bad system that Sen. Specter has exploited for his own political gain."

Two budget items - defense and homeland security - are off limits, in Toomey's quest for spending cuts.

While the "Tech Bubble" bust of several years has silenced many Republicans from talking about proposals to partially privatize Social Security, Toomey remains undaunted in his support.

He views as a much-needed reform the idea of allowing individuals to voluntarily opt out of the government's retirement system and use up to half of their Social Security payroll taxes to create self-directed, personal saving accounts.

Meanwhile, Toomey said he's not discouraged by a recent Keystone Poll conducted by the Center for Opinion Research at Frank and Marshall College in Lancaster that showed him trailing Specter by a 55 to 17 percent margin.

He claimed the poll was flawed since respondents were not exclusively likely Republican primary voters.

"Besides," he said, "if this race was as lopsided as that poll suggested, would Arlen Specter be running so many television ads attacking me?"