President Bush’s reckless tax cuts for the wealthy have squandered a historic budget surplus and thrown the country into the largest deficit in history.
Due to fiscal mismanagement, the current $374 billion deficit is expected to rise to more than $520 billion in 2004. As a result, states are losing out on federal aid and are being forced to cut health care and seniors programs and increase college tuition in virtually every state.
Bush 2005 deficit will top $520 billion. In his proposed 2005 budget, Bush revealed the budget deficit will reach an astonishing $521 billion — a full $150 billion higher than last year’s record-setting deficit. (”Deficit Is $521 Billion in Bush Budget,” Washington Post, February 2, 2004)
And, if Republicans have their way and make the tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, our national debt will exceed $10 trillion by 2014. As they stand, the Bush Administration’s tax cuts for the rich are projected to add $2.6 trillion to the government’s debt between 2002 and 2014. If the tax cuts are made permanent, an additional $2.9 trillion will need to be borrowed over the next decade — a total of $5.5 trillion over the next ten years to pay for the tax cuts alone.
[mjh: Thanks, MD]
Most people’s eyes glaze over at such numbers. We all know how speculative such projections are. What we need to remember is the tax cuts were passed with an expiration date — that’s HOW they made into law. Since then, a lot of things have changed for the worse. Now Bush says anyone who doesn’t vote for making them permanent is for tax increases (not simply for fiscal responsibility). He’s using the same argument with the ”Patriot” Act. Bush is a scoundrel. mjh