The White House has always been very scripted about the new budget deficit -- it is caused by the recession Clinton left us and the terrorist attack that Osama gave us. It doesn't ever, ever mention that Bush passed a $1.35 million tax cut in 2001 on the premise that there would be at least $1.35 trillion in surplus over the next 10 years, and, now that we're in deficit, the Bush tax cut is spending surplus money that never materialized, thus increasing the deficit. The White House refuses, at all cost of logic and sanity, to admit that the Bush tax cuts have worsened the deficit. Until now.

Some poor employee has unfortunately let out the truth in the new budget document. Timothy Noah and Chatterbox at Slate have come across a passage that finally concedes what we all know to be true. In the historical tables volume of the 2004 White House budget, a passage from the bottom of Page 5 states:

An economic slowdown began in 2001 and was exacerbated by the terrorists' attacks of September 11, 2001. The deterioration in the performance of the economy together with income tax relief provided to help offset the economic slowdown and additional spending in response to the terrorist attacks produced a drop in the surplus to $127.1 billion (1.3% of GDP) and a return to deficits ($157.8 billion, 1.5% of GDP) in 2002.

Whoops! And, let's not forget one important fact as we read about the Bush Administration's budget. The deficit for 2004 is predicted to be over $300 billion, a record. Now, you might say, well, that's not really so bad, is it, after all we're planning a war in Iraq. Aha, but the cost for the war on Iraq, estimated to be between $50 and $200 billion, hasn't been accounted for in this budget. So there is a realistic chance that the budget deficit could actually climb to HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS. And Bush wants to cut taxes again?


- posted by Joshua @ 4:12 PM