U.S. Budget Office Deepens Fiscal Gloom for Bush

[DK666]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office on Monday forecast a slight improvement in this year's record federal budget deficit, but new evidence of worsening deficits over the next decade will still pose political problems for President Bush in an election year.


http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=KLISP55JOCBMMCRBAELCFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=4209743

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

1. You mean they made a mistake? LOL

The article references the Bush administration's "promise an effective freeze on federal discretionary spending not connected to defense or homeland security, calling that the foundation of a push to halve the deficit over five years."

but...

"Congressional and private-sector budget analysts, however, note the move would save the government only around $8 billion dollars out of a $2 trillion-plus federal budget -- even if Congress can be made to swallow the cuts it would require."

and the inevitable punchline to the joke:

"It's more like an effort to get through the next 10 days," said Stan Collender, a veteran budget watcher at public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard. "It isn't going to happen."

However, the VICTORY here...the line to really take note of...is:

"Democrats have long slammed Bush and his big tax cuts for the steep slide in the government's finances since it booked a record surplus of $236 billion in 2000. But their criticism has not yet struck much of a chord outside Washington."

Which means, folks, that what we've known all along has been "outed" and is no longer a "whining dems" issue (although it never was, but it's nice to have it said).

[SpiralHawk]

2. This is another fine mess you are getting us into, Chimpee

"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."
- George W. Bush, Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003

[lancdem]

3. I click on the link but nothing comes up

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. This one works (same Reuters story from Yahoo front page)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&e=3&u=/nm/20040126/bs_nm/budget_congress_dc

[wysimdnwyg]

5. Isn't that what the...

MRI tech said when * got his head examined?

[papau]

6. Why no discussion of 10 yr est up from 1.4 to 2.4 trillion? - and 7.5 T

of likely stuff like a change to alt min tax to conform it to new regular FIT results - yes $7.5 trillion addition to make 9.9 trillion deficit over 10 years -is not even included in the new $2.4 trillion. The CBO is not hiding this disaster - does anyone still read the actual government release?

Is the financial media just GOP Whores?

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=4985&sequence=0

[leftchick]

7. "is the financial media just gop whores?".....

yup..... I came to that conclusion about two years ago....

[papau]

8. Real deficit is $536B before stealing 161 B from Social Security

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=4985&sequence=0



Real deficit is $536B before stealing 161 B from Social Security

Seems the CBO is laying out the numbers but the media refuses to report them!The deficit baseline (ignoring the $7.5 trillion of likely but not certain deficit over 10 years from estentions of the tax cuts, and a change to the Alt Min that is likely)is

year 1... 536 before SS payroll tax theft of 161 billion

.....2....631................................$154 B

.....3....535................................174 B

.....8....511

....10....299 where the drop is the effect of NOT extending the tax cuts.

[papau]

9. CBO used 4.8% growth next year - and still got these numbers -and * cuts

CBO used 4.8% growth next year - and still got these numbers -and * cuts are unreal - so minimal they do not pass laugh test.

Bush has - for this election year -promised an effective freeze on federal discretionary spending not connected to defense or homeland security, calling that the foundation of a push to halve the deficit over five years.

Congressional and private-sector budget analysts, however, note the move would save the government only around $8 billion dollars out of a $2 trillion-plus federal budget -- even if Congress can be made to swallow the cuts it would require.

And all this despite assumptions of economic growth of 4.8 percent this year and 4.2 percent in 2005

[papau]

13. CBO director on PBS says making 01 cuts permanent is 1.5T - is this

CBO director on PBS says making 01 cuts permanent is 1.5T - is this additional?

A 1.5 T number does not show up in the 9.9 T (2.4 base plus 7.5 likely) discussion.

Another lie?

[papau]

15. Krugman says tax cuts caused deficit

Krugman thinks anew that the Bush tax cuts caused the record deficit


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/27/opinion/27KRUG.html

<snip> The main reason for deficits, however, is that revenues have plunged. Federal tax receipts as a share of national income are now at their lowest level since 1950.Of course, most people don't feel that their taxes have fallen sharply. And they're right: taxes that fall mainly on middle-income Americans, like the payroll tax, are still near historic highs. The decline in revenue has come almost entirely from taxes that are mostly paid by the richest 5 percent of families: the personal income tax and the corporate profits tax. These taxes combined now take a smaller share of national income than in any year since World War II.

This decline in tax collections from the wealthy is partly the result of the Bush tax cuts, which account for more than half of this year's projected deficit. But it also probably reflects an epidemic of tax avoidance and evasion. Everyone who wants to understand what's happening to the tax system should read "Perfectly Legal," the new book by David Cay Johnston, The Times's tax reporter, who shows how ideologues have made America safe for wealthy people who don't feel like paying taxes.

I was particularly struck by Mr. Johnston's description of the carefully staged Senate Finance Committee hearings in 1997-1998. Senators Trent Lott and Frank Murkowski accused the I.R.S. of "Gestapo"-like tactics, and Congress passed new rules that severely restricted the I.R.S.'s ability to investigate suspected tax evaders. Only later, when the cameras were no longer rolling, did it become clear that the whole thing was a con. Most of the charges weren't true, and there was good reason to believe that the star witness, who dramatically described how I.R.S. agents had humiliated him, really was engaged in major-league tax evasion (he eventually paid $23 million, insisting he had done no wrong).<snip>


So the right has used deceptive salesmanship to undermine tax enforcement and push through upper-income tax cuts. And now that deficits have emerged, the right insists that they are the result of runaway spending, which must be curbed. <snip>

[papau]

12. delete - dupe

:-)

[Skidmore]

14. Why hide it when the have a graph with purdy colors on it

projecting revenue increases in the out years. Revenue increases in spite of an anticipated policy of making tax cuts permanent. We aren't that stupid.

[GOPBasher]

10. I know how Bush will respond to this.

"More tax cuts for billionaires, baby! That'll fix everything!"

[platinumPens]

11. The White House line is that it is manageable as a percentage

of GNP. *groan*