From Bad to Worse
From Bad to Worse
The Congressional Budget Office just released its latest projections on the federal budget. Things aren’t looking good. The CBO projects the federal government will rack up “$855 billion in debt between 2006 and 2015,” and $365 billion this year alone. But that doesn’t even begin to describe the scope of our budget problem. Through a combination of Bush administration trickery and legal technicalities, the CBO numbers don’t include:
1. The $80 billion Bush just requested for Iraq and Afghanistan (including, as Atrios notes, an astounding $1.5 billion for a U.S. embassy in Iraq).
2. Assumes no spending on Iraq or Afghanistan over the next 10 years. This omission reduces the deficit by as much as $1.4 trillion.
3. Bush’s $2 trillion Social Security privatization scheme.
4. $2.5 trillion over ten years to make Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, a stated priority.
Here is the really scary part: even with all this chicanery, Bush still doesn’t meet his promise of cutting the actual deficit in half by 2009.
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Judd,
Thanks for the good summary of the REAL budget. I’ve seen the CBO’s fantasy estimates earlier this year. Needless to say, they overestimated all positive aspects of the economy, like the GDP growth rates and projected tax revenues. They underestimated government spending and underestimated the deficit. It shouldn’t be called the CBO, it should be called the C”BS”O. The big question I have is whether they are simply distorting information, or just completely making it up as they go.
I’d also like to ad something to the privatization costs. The $2 trillion privatization cost estimate is only for the first 10 years. The longer term cost is much higher. It’s estimated the cost will be $3 the 2nd decade, $5 trillion the 3rd decade, and then another $5 trillion in the fourth decade. Before the government ever saves any money, privatization will have cost $15 trillion. (This information comes from the NYTimes article by Paul Krugman, on 1/11/05.)
I would like to copy and paste your article, “From Bad to Worse,” on my blogsite if that’s OK with you. It’s really a great summary of the difference between Bush’s “alternate reality” deficit, and the real deficit.
Mike
http://www.unlawflcombatnt.blogspot.com/
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