Labour leader Helen Clark says she believes National will cut universal subsidies in several areas in an attempt to reprioritise public service spending to pay for its election promises.
National has announced several election pledges which will be paid for out of existing budget allocations.
Although it is not proposing cutting spending, it will look to make savings from within those allocations to pay for its promises.
National leader John Key has said he will cap the size of the bureaucracy and will ask all public service chief executives to go through their spending line by line to see if savings can be made.
He has said a committee of cabinet ministers would initiate spending reviews.
Labour has been quick to label National's proposed committee a "razor gang" - raising the spectre of spending cuts in the 1990s under National.
Miss Clark today said she expected universal subsidies for doctors visits and early childhood education (ECE) for three and four-year-olds to be in the firing line, despite National specifically committing to keeping both.
But that did not stop Miss Clark mounting an attack on National.
"I'm very well aware of what National governments have done in the past, advised by Treasury, at times of crisis, which is to zero in on things which are of universal value."
She said National cut spending during the recession of the early 1990s and then cut superannuation after the 1998 recession brought on by the Asian financial crisis.
Labour would bring forward spending to prop up consumption and keep jobs during the current economic crisis, she said.
National has promised to inject an extra $3.7 billion into additional infrastructure spending over the next six years.
