CBPP: HOW PROJECTED SURPLUSES BECAME DEFICITS

[tpsbmam]

If you're not familiar with the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, it's a great resource for economic information.

(snips -- it's worth reading the whole thing)

http://www.cbpp.org/9-12-08bud.htm

HOW PROJECTED SURPLUSES BECAME DEFICITS:
Main Causes Were Tax Cuts and Higher Security Spending

The federal budget is projected to run a $546 billion deficit in 2009, compared with the $710 billion surplus that budget experts projected for 2009 back when President Bush took office nearly eight years ago. This $1.3 trillion deterioration in the nation’s fiscal finances for 2009 can be seen by comparing estimates that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released this week with those that CBO released in January 2001.

The story is much the same for the entire ten-year period covered by CBO’s 2001 projection. In January 2001, CBO projected a cumulative $5.6 trillion surplus for 2002-2011. Now, CBO’s new report suggests the nation will amass a cumulative deficit of $3.8 trillion over that same period, marking a $9.4 trillion deterioration.
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The dominant factor in the unprecedented fiscal deterioration thus was not the performance of the economy. Nor was it increases in domestic programs. The key factors have been large tax cuts and increases in security-related programs. For fiscal 2009, some $1 trillion of the $1.3 trillion deterioration in the nation’s fiscal finances stems from policy actions, and tax cuts account for 42 percent of this $1 trillion deterioration. Increases in military and other security programs account for another 40 percent of the deterioration.

The story is much the same for the ten-year period as a whole. For the 2002-2011 period, tax cuts and increases in security programs account for more than four-fifths of the fiscal deterioration caused by policy actions. Increases in domestic programs played a much more modest role.

[GardeningGal]

1. Interesting article - bookmarking for my "fiscal conservative"

relatives.

[tpsbmam]

2. Yep....I just sent it out to a couple of people I know who are considering voting

for McAddled.....along with this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/24/AR2008042403456_pf.html

Now that he is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, however, McCain is marching straight down the party line. The economic package he has laid out embraces many of the tax policies he once decried: extending Bush's tax cuts he voted against, offering investment tax breaks he once believed would have little economic benefit and granting the long-held wishes of tax lobbyists he has often mocked.


(One of the people I sent it to can be swayed -- we worked on him and he voted for Kerry in 2004.)

[crickets]

3. So, it's about hemorrhaging funds to prop up an illegal war, along with

cutting taxes, especially those from the brackets most capable of paying them. Toss in some government bloat and waste in the name of "security" and here we are. Who'da thunk it? Heckuva job, Georgie.