Bush Budget Shows Big Deficits for Decade to Come

[Tony_FLADEM]

WASHINGTON (March 4) - President Bush's budget would keep federal deficits over $200 billion annually over the next decade, Congress' top budget analyst said Friday in a report raising doubts about White House efforts to contain the shortfalls.

The analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Bush's plans for spending and taxes would yield deficits through the decade ending in 2015 totaling $2.58 trillion. That is $1.6 trillion worse than they would be if none of the president's fiscal plans become law, the budget office said, the chief factor being his plan to make already enacted tax cuts permanent.

The congressional office said it believes cumulative deficits over the next decade will be $125 billion worse than it estimated only two months ago. That is largely because it has added $70 billion to its projected 10-year costs of Medicare spending, about 1 percent more, including $54 billion more for the costs of prescription drug coverage.

The new figures were released days before the House and Senate Budget committees plan to write their own spending plans for the coming year. The panels' chairmen, Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., have been hunting for GOP support for packages following Bush's proposals to restrain spending and cut deficits in half by 2009.

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[NEOBuckeye]

1. The Bush Legacy

Bush is the antithesis of FDR. While Roosevelt sought to restructure and rebuild the nation, Bush and his cronies set out to destroy it, and profit in its' collapse.

Just remember to tell your grandkids in a few years what you actively did to try and stop this foolish man from ruining their future.

[Starfury]

2. More from the article

"Over the next decade, deficits would get no lower than $229 billion in 2010, the congressional office estimated.

It also projected that Bush's fiscal plans would yield deficits of $394 billion this year and $332 billion in 2006.

That was lower than the $427 billion and $390 billion shortfalls the White House has projected for those same years.

The congressional analyst noted that Bush's budget omitted the costs of overhauling Social Security, which some analysts expect to exceed $1 trillion for the first decade.

Bush's budget also omits any new funds for U.S. military and reconstruction operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2006. The congressional analyst said keeping next year's military operations at this year's levels would probably add about $40 billion to the 2006 shortfall, pushing it to perhaps $375 billion."

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And I bet the deficits will actually be significantly higher. Only $40B annually for Iraq? Not bloody likely...

[no_hypocrisy]

3. And don't forget the costs of Iran & Syria on our charm bracelet.