The 44th president's $4 trillion headache (CNNMoney.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

The candidates want to do things like reduce taxes and fix health care. But they'll have to deal with the cold realities of the federal budget.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
February 22 2008: 3:07 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The presidential candidates all have big plans for their time in the White House. Reform health care. Reduce taxes. Close corporate loopholes. Encourage savings. The list goes on.

Like college graduates whose career choices may be limited by their student loan debt, however, the next president could be constrained by the federal budget.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the annual budget deficit will improve during the next president's four-year term and end in a surplus of $61 billion by 2013.

But that baseline projection is based on financial assumptions that no one expects to pan out. Two of the biggest roadblocks threatening to upend budgetary nirvana: What to do about the looming expiration of tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, and the growing cost of fixing - or nixing - the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Depending on how you address them, those two factors alone could add close to $4 trillion to the federal budget deficit by 2018, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center.
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more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/22/news/economy/candidates_deficit/index.htm?cnn=yes

[DavidDvorkin]

1. The expiration of the tax cuts will hugely help the situation

They're a major cause of the current problem, even with the war and outrageous military spending.

But maybe I'm just a stupid liberal and therefore can't understand this higher finance stuff.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. I thought the wording was rather strange. They make it sound like the ...

upcoming expiration is a PROBLEM. It's only a problem to Repugs, who promised to deliver more to their base.

[SharonAnn]

3. Today I just reread an AP article, Dec 2000, about how the U. S. could be debt free

by 2009. Imagine that!

Bill Clinton gave a presentation the end of December 2000 laying out the budget, tax revenues, current national debt, general economics, etc.

We could've been debt free. But instead, we've got GWB to thank for debt as far as the eye can see.

[Doctor_J]

4. It's going to be expensive to prosecute the entire administration too

but leveling the tax code should help. We will also have a lot of international goodwill from firing and prosecuting the fascists.