Federal Deficit Is Expected to Reach $477 Billion For '04

[RamboLiberal]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/dowjones/20040126/bs_dowjones/200401261433001152

The Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites) said it expects the federal government to run a $477 billion deficit in fiscal year 2004 -- the largest ever in terms of dollars.

The CBO also warned Monday that the cumulative deficit that will accrue between 2005 and 2014 will hit $1.9 trillion, and this figure doesn't include President Bush (news - web sites)'s proposal to make his tax cuts permanent.

The fiscal picture from 2004 through 2013 has worsened by $986 billion since CBO last released deficit projections in August.

Of that increase, $681 billion is attributable to legislation enacted by Congress last year, including a $400 billion plan to add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare and increase financial incentives to private insurers to enter the Medicare market.

[citizen snips]

1. That is what happens when you elect a Bush.

n/t

[papau]

2. The real 04 deficit of $631 Billion is 477 after stealing $154 from Social

Security payroll tax surplus!

Real deficit 03 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

Why the media does not note the increase in the 10 year deficit from 1.4 trillion to 2.4 trillion, and also does not note the CBO estimate of $7.5 trillion addition to that 2.4 for extending the tax cuts and more realistic spending estimates, is - in my opinion - just because the US financial media are right wing GOP controlled whores.

but that is just my opinion

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



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=114&topic_id=5050

[papau]

5. 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]

6. Krugman says Taxcuts 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>

[GOPBasher]

3. Well I think the tax cuts were a dandy idea!

Don't you? :crazy:

[papau]

4. 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