Preview -- World News Tonight 04/09/01

N E W   Y O R K, April 9 -- Good Afternoon.

It is heavy. There's no doubt about that. The four books arrived here mid-morning, wrapped in plastic. A hefty stack of paper (you'd need a good suitcase to take it anywhere) and arguably the most important document the government produces.

The package has a name: "Budget of the United States Government." It was presented to the Congress today, laying out how nearly $2 trillion of your money is to be spent — if the new administration has its way. (It may help to see the figure: $1,960,000,000,000).

I cannot say we've read it, but our reporters have dissected the tax cuts and spending choices that make up what's also known as "Fiscal 2002." We'll hear tonight from Terry Moran at the White House — and our Capitol Hill reporter Linda Douglass.

In the other news today, one step forward, two steps back. The Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin used the phrase — but it might also apply to the state of play in the Bush Administration's current tug-of-war with China. We all believed before the weekend that an end to the story of those 24 Americans was near; the indications here and in China were promising. Today both the tenor and the substance of the negotiations seem to suggest a longer standoff. We'll have an update on all the latest news from ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz — and then we'll turn to our chief Asia correspondent Mark Litke for an assessment of how much influence the Chinese military has on the China decision. Most analysts here and there are telling us the military may be at the heart of the Chinese hard line.

Other news tonight takes us to the flood zone in the northern plains — Bill Clinton's post-presidential travels — and then to that long and difficult story about the 9-month-olds now known as the "Internet Twins."

Also tonight, we open our series we're calling "The Tax Burden." Tonight, why the tax cheaters may be getting away with it. John Martin reports on all the money that might be saved, if things were done differently.