In
The New York Times:
The White House serenely brushed off a detailed caution from the Congressional Budget Office last week that the growth in the deficit is more likely to roar than retreat across the next decade,
fed by the three Bush tax cuts and other debt-fattening indulgences. If that warning was not enough,
how about the concern reported at the International Monetary Fund that the administration has no credible plan to restore budget balance? Yes, the I.M.F., which must lecture the profligates of the globe,
is worried that a structural deficit will push up interest rates and restrain growth as America ceaselessly borrows to steer red ink from imbalanced budgets onto future taxpayers.The coming overview from the I.M.F. is reported to foresee that in the short run the United States will drive economic growth. But it can find no believable plan to rein in ballooning deficits, already at historic levels. The mix of detaxation and deficit spending that has overtaken the government under President Bush's guidance is rolling trillions of dollars in debt over to the uncertain future. The nonpartisan budget office's outlook is conservative compared with other responsible estimates of deficits averaging a half-trillion dollars across the decade, doubling the national debt to $9 trillion.
Hard choices should be made now about this grave threat, before the baby boomers are stuck with the bill in shrunken retirement benefits. But the dominant Republicans of Washington value no vision beyond pandering to taxpayers in the next election cycle.
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