Record deficit expected in 2009

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — The White House has increased its estimate for next year's deficit to nearly $490 billion, a record figure that will saddle the next president with deepening budget problems in his first year in office, a report due out Monday shows.

The projected deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is being driven higher by the continuing economic slowdown and larger-than-anticipated costs of the two-year, $168 billion fiscal stimulus package passed by Congress, said two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the report. In February, President Bush predicted the 2009 deficit would be $407 billion.

The budget update shows this year's deficit headed under $400 billion, at least $10 billion less than projected, according to the two officials. That's partly because tax revenue held up reasonably well despite the weaker economy.

The rising deficit for 2009 marks a sharp turnaround for Bush's fiscal legacy. He inherited a $128 billion surplus when he came into office in 2001. It soon turned to red ink because of a recession, the Sept. 11 attacks and the war on terrorism.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-07-27-deficit_N.htm

[MidwestTransplant]

1. May want to add tax cuts as a reason for the huge deficit.

[SpiralHawk]

11. "Smirk." - Republicon Have Mores

eom

[Demeter]

12. May Want to Add Major Tax Increases On Oil Companies and Wealthy F********

to alleviate some of the pain and reduce the disaster.

And when the criminal trials start, there's always asset stripping!

Believe! It's gonna happen!

[MidwestTransplant]

2. By the way this doesn't even include spending in Iraq and Afghanistan does it?

[Lasher]

5. It doesn't include the supplemental appropriations.

From the linked article:

The actual 2009 deficit could climb still higher because the new projection does not reflect full funding for the wars. In addition, a worsening economy could add to the red ink by reducing tax revenue and increasing safety-net payments, such as jobless benefits and food stamps.

[rcsl1998]

39. Nope! Like Any Criminal Syndicate Or Cartel...

...that's on a second set of books...

[JeffR]

3. Their projected fiscal '08 spending for the illegal occupation of Iraq

is about $194.5 billion.

The slowdown has of course largely resulted from their ruinous (and deliberate) mismanagement of the economy, and the stimulus package spending cited is a big, fat, stinking red herring.

The biggest issue in this election is Iraq, and for those who insist, "It's the economy!' I again point to Iraq. Everything, including the economy, hinges on the war crime that is our illegal occupation of Iraq. It's the keystone. It's the major reason why everything is totally FOOBAR. That - and oil - is why they did this.

(And impeachment, nonetheless, is off the table. Where, I wonder, is the goddamn table?)

[Hugin]

7. Yes, all roads lead to...

Iraq.

I agree.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

52. Let's call it $700B then.

$700,000,000,000.00

[Lasher]

4. Junior sure is good at setting records.

http://www.lafn.org/politics/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart.html

[superconnected]

10. Thank you for posting that. It says it all.

[Historic NY]

6. Nothing like them fiscally responsible Rethugicans driving the...

government into the ground. Thank God it will be up to the Democrats to cleanup this mess a point that should be made time & time again.

[Lasher]

8. Highly biased article.

Looks tike they took it straight from the White House fax.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Good thing we have 'conservative' republicons in charge.

Ptoooey on all their lying bullcrap.

Republicons have flushed the American economy down the cosmic crapper with their greed, corruption, and incompetence.

Total republicon FAIL.

[LynnTheDem]

13. Another huge mess left by republicans for Dems to clean up.

You'd think even the stupidest rightwingers would have figured this out by now.

[dysfunctional press]

15. that's why they're running mccain...if he wins, they'll crap their pants.

because they have absolutely no idea what to do when there isn't any money left to steal.

[iconicgnom]

14. = record profits for Halliburton, Carlyle group, Blackwater, ....,

and of course individuals with big stakes in those corporations devoted to war profiteering, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Kissinger, ....

Believe it, the neocon drivers in the US admin, in the World Bank, the IMF, etc., know exactly what they're doing. Cognitive dissonance arises when we continue against all the evidence amassed over the past 30+ years to believe the lies fed the masses through the MSM, which these same war profiteers own. The lies that their concern is about promoting "democracy" and "freedom" and "human rights", and "US core values" etc., rather than a 100% pursuit of private profit. These same players have left a trail of massive destruction across the planet, millions dead, tortured, even more millions refugees, disenfranchised -- whole countries bankrupted and on the ropes, their peoples made powerless by privatization and deregulation, firesale giveaways of national assets and natural resources forced through by using war and deliberately caused economic disasters and so on as leverage.

Americans who think these people, these "neocons" (actually they're just free-market corporate raiders under any name), have a special place in their hearts for the US, for the economic and political well-being of "mainstream middle class america" and that the US is for some arcane reason immune from the devastation caused by their economic/political programs, are dreamers. In fact, at this point of the globalization process the US is just another cherry ripe for their picking. Or rather, consider it plucked. When they're done chewing, the US will have nothing left -- just as in every other case they've had a freehand to show their stuff.

[cal04]

16. Bush official: 2008 deficit will set a record

Source: Associated Press

Deficit approaching $490 billion amid sagging economy, stimulus
A senior administration official said Monday the federal budget deficit for this year will set a record high approaching $490 billion.

The official said the deficit was being driven to record levels by the sagging economy and the stimulus payments being made to 130 million households in an effort to keep the country from falling into a deep recession. A deficit approaching $490 billion would easily surpass the record deficit of $413 billion set in 2004.

The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because the new estimate had not been formally released. Administration officials were scheduled to do that at a news conference later Monday.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25884806/

---

more here
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR2008072800953.html?hpid=topnews

[ixion]

17. I don't think we can stand much more of BushCo style record setting

:(

[bemildred]

18. Blind to the obvious -- by Mogambo Guru

I was looking at how Treasury gross public debt is now officially over US$9.5 trillion, and was thinking of using that particular bit of terrifying insanity as an excuse to get really hammered, when I suddenly remembered that I didn't have any money or credit with which to buy inexpensive but tasty alcoholic beverages, or even a burrito to get that subtle taste of anti-freeze out of my mouth. Damn!

Recently, I had forged a lot of IOUs in my kids' names at various bars around town, and already people were getting suspicious about them, unduly limiting my subsequent issuances of more IOUs, and I was out of ideas for a new scam.

So it was somewhat coincidental and startling that at the very next moment I read where Gary North in his Reality Check newsletter at garynorth.com wrote, "Americans would regard the son's inheritance of a father's debt as tyrannical. But, with the help of Congress, Americans have adopted the same system, but on a far larger scale. We have passed our IOUs on to the children of our neighbors' children."

This brings up one of the points of disagreement between Mr North and me, as he thinks of these creditors as "neighbors", while I refer to them as "vicious foreign devils", and not just because I am a xenophobic, fearful, hateful, paranoid whack-job, but because every lynch mob I have ever seen in the movies or heard about in real life is always comprised of somebody's "neighbors".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG26Dj01.html

[rurallib]

19. shooting for that magic $10 trillion number.

Junior sinks US with $5 trillion debt of his own. Add daddy and uncle St. Ronnie and they add up to about $9 trillion of the $10 trillion debt.

[raccoon]

20. Well, he's first in something. :sarcasm: nt

[Jim__]

21. Poppy's last budget set a record deficit too. - n/t

[seafan]

22. "....the country fell into a recession in March 2001....." (Yep. It wasn't Clinton's fault.)

Bush official: 2008 deficit will set a record

AP
July 28, 2008

WASHINGTON - A senior administration official said Monday the federal budget deficit for this year will set a record high approaching $490 billion.

.....

The 2002 performance marked the first budget deficit after four consecutive years of budget surpluses.

That stretch of budget surpluses represented a period when the country’s finances had been bolstered by a 10-year period of uninterrupted economic growth, the longest period of expansion in U.S. history.

However, the country fell into a recession in March 2001 and government spending to fight the war on terrorism contributed to pushing the deficit to a record in dollar terms in 2004.

.....

Like father....









Two favorite sayings of mine:


1. Republicans are unable to govern.

2. Those who despise government should never be allowed to control it.

[LynnTheDem]

23. "an effort to keep the country from falling into a deep recession." Funny though

how Cheney the Dick, his Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater et al are posting world record profits.

[margotb822]

24. Can Bush's tax cuts be repealed?

Not just allowed to expire, but completely repealed? This is just sickening fiscal malfeasance.

Oh, and I like the part where they say "The new figure actually underestimates the deficit, since it leaves out about $80 billion in war costs. In a break from tradition — and in violation of new mandates from Congress — the White House did not include its full estimate of war costs."

Awesome.

[AlphaCentauri]

25. U.S. Deficit to Hit Record $490 Billion in 2009

Source: Bloomberg

The U.S. budget deficit will widen to a record of about $490 billion next year, an administration official said, leaving a deep budget hole for the next president.

The projected deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is far higher than the $407 billion forecast by President George W. Bush in February. The official also confirmed a report in USA Today that the deficit this year will be less than the $410 billion estimated in February.

The bigger shortfall for fiscal 2009 may reflect dwindling tax receipts because of the U.S. economic slowdown, the cost of payments distributed under the $168 billion economic stimulus package and the continuing cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``We've already seen a pretty sharp cooling in tax receipts and it's just going to continue into next fiscal year,'' Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Capital Markets, said in a telephone interview.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVdPjt7fCiXc&refer=home

[trthnd4jstc]

26. Increase Taxes on the Rich, Right Now!

End the Stupidity. Pay down the deficit. Make the Rich pay. Decrease as many Government programs as possible. End the Deficit. Restore the Value of the Dollar. End the selling out of our nation, through debt, outsourcing, and downsizing. The Dollar is terribly weakended. Restore our Republic.

[Synnical]

27. And that doesn't include war costs n/t

[defendandprotect]

28. Are the war costs off budget? How are they doing it?

[Psephos]

29. War costs are a joke compared to the other off-budget items

Like "borrowing" from the Social Security trust funds. That alone adds another $2 trillion to the total national debt, and goes up a couple hundred billion every year, at least double the cost of the war.

You know what's actually in the "trust fund"? A pile of off-budget IOUs. Well, to be specific, Treasury Bonds. The government has borrowed from itself. Guess who's on the hook for it?

[Turbineguy]

30. 2009?

Whew, no problem then. A Dem will be in the WH and we can blame it on the Dems!

[fencesitter]

31. A Deficit Forecast of $482 Billion, a Record

Source: NYT

WASHINGTON — The White House predicted on Monday that the Bush administration would bequeath a record deficit of $482 billion to the next president — a sobering turnabout in the nation’s fiscal condition from 2001 when President Bush took office and inherited three consecutive years of budget surpluses.

By most accounts, the worst seems yet to come. The deficit announced by Jim Nussle, the White House budget director, does not reflect the full cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the potential $50 billion cost of another economic stimulus package or the prospect of steeper losses in tax revenues or further declines in the housing market.

Mr. Nussle also predicted Monday that the deficit would more than double in the current 2008 fiscal year — to $389 billion, from $162 billion in 2007.

********


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/washington/29budget.html?hp

[LynnTheDem]

32. Another George W. bUsh LEGACY!

-2 failed wars (invasions & occupations, actually).

-Record levels of contempt & dislike towards America.

-Less safe from terrorist attacks than at any time in US history.

-Dropping Freedom Index (we're #21! We're #21!); dropping Press Freedoms (we're #53! We're #53!); increasing infant mortality (for the first time in 45 years!; dropping healthcare system (last in developed nations!).

-Record deficit.

And he's even managed to cause more deaths of American citizens than Osama bin Laden! Doing a heckova job, Georgie.

[whistle]

33. As BushCo typically has understated every budget deficit in the past seven years

....we can all count on the 2009 budget deficit to be much higher then they are projecting. In fact, it will be a mess for the next congress and executive to deal with

[rcsl1998]

40. NO! Charlie Brown, Lucy & The Football

Every year, around this time, this mal-administration has announced a LARGER projected budget deficit estimate that this mis-administration knows they can 'beat' - They then announce, against all logic, but dutifully enabled by our lapdog corporate m$m that the 'cut' the deficit - the pretzel-logic being that the closing figure they reported was better that the previously floated 'estimate' - It's all a game to them and you fall for this over & over & over - hence the Charlie Brown analogy. PLEASE WAKE UP!!!

[whistle]

53. I'm not sure what your sources are for making such a claim, I go here

http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf

Now, if you have a chart which shows Bush's annual budget projections going back to the first year he made them which I believe was 2002 we could run comparisons of those projections against actual and see how he came out. They usually ran those projections out for a decade or so showing how the deficits would fall each year. In truth they never have under Bush II nor did they with Reagan and Bush I. Clinton/Gore second term was the only period where surpluses occurred and progress on National Debt actually happened. Stick that in your Peanuts column!

[rcsl1998]

54. No! Please pay attention...

I never said he projected a surplus - What he has done is 'claimed' he cut the deficit and he gets away with it like Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football:

1) A couple months before the end of the fiscal year, someone in the administration 'leaks' a poor unofficial projected deficit for the year (greater than the figures they think will be actually reported when all is said and done)

2) At the end of the fiscal year, they report a deficit slightly less daunting that the 'leaked' estimate of a couple months earlier

3) Pretzel brain using pretzel logic then 'claims' he cut the deficit (because he claims that the actual final figures reported for the end of the fiscal year are better than the 'leaked' estimate from mid- to late summer)

4) Lapdog press play the role of stenographers and uncritically report what * said

Every year! Rinse and repeat...

Not logic, but pretzel logic!

[emad]

34. Hoyer: Bush Administration "most Fiscally Irresponsible...in American History"

(The Politico) House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the Bush administration "the most fiscally irresponsible administration in American history" on Monday, after the administration predicted the budget deficit would rise to record levels next year.

“Today’s budget projections by OMB are simply further evidence that the Bush Administration is the most fiscally irresponsible Administration in American history," Hoyer said in a statement.

"Let no one be mistaken: The vast majority of this record deficit is attributable to policies enacted by the former Republican Majorities in Congress and signed into law by President Bush."

On Monday morning the Bush administration released a revised estimate putting the new budget deficit at roughly $482 billion for next year. The administration blamed the sagging economy and the stimulus checks sent out earlier in the year for causing the debt increase.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/28/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4300952.shtml

[stubtoe]

50. Unfortunately, I can't find this anywhere outside the blogs.

Not on the front pages or in the "news".

[CatholicEdHead]

35. Another step of "bathtub of debt"

Raise it so much that when it tries to go back the other direction, options are limited. All part of Norquist's thesis.

[klyon]

36. doesn't Congress pass the budget?

They should stop giving him the money unless he has a plan to bring in more revenue. This completely out of hand.

[Phred42]

37. If you believe that. There will be an adjusted figure soon

Then a re-adjusted figure after that and NONE of them will be the correct number

[newfie11]

38. Gee and Bill Clinton was the president who left that to bush.

"when President Bush took office and inherited three consecutive years of budget surpluses"

And now it seems everyone dislikes Bill. Go figure!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

41. kick to combine

[mikeytherat]

42. Worsened deficit outlook laid to economy, rebates

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (via wire reports)

WASHINGTON -- The next president will inherit a record budget deficit of $482 billion, according to a Bush administration estimate released yesterday.

The White House blamed slow economic growth and taxpayer rebates.

The new figure, far above the $407 billion for fiscal 2009 that President Bush projected six months ago, would shatter the record of $413 billion set in fiscal 2004. This year's deficit is expected to be $389 billion.

The numbers mean the next president will begin his term facing intense pressure to find new revenue or cut spending dramatically.

Huzzah! The rebate checks, which the White House insisted on sending out to stimulate the economy, have actually, according to the same White House, worsened the economy.

:crazy:

mikey_the_rat

Read more: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/business.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-07-29-0121.html

[freesqueeze]

43. Isn't the Iraq Fiasco...

off the books?

Failure...Failure...Failure...Failure...Failure...Failure...Failure...Failure.

The Bush legacy is set in stone.

[ryanmuegge]

51. It sure is. Nobody in the media ever questions McCain about that when he talks about cutting

spending, either. I guess that's one of the many unmentionables in mainstream discourse.

[ixion]

44. Yes, it seems our MSM hasn't learned the one simple rule about *

Everything he touches turns to sh*t.

If he thinks it's a good idea, it most certainly is a bad idea, and so on.

After eight devastating years of this type of (ill)logic, you'd think the MSM would catch on. But no, they sit their scratching their heads wondering how one of *'s ideas could have gone so wrong. :eyes:

[RedLetterRev]

48. In the military, that's what we called the ExLax Touch

vs the Midas Touch, of course... Shrub has it. We had another expression that seem to fit him: He'd eff up a wet dream, then get up from that and eff up a TV dinner.

Now that kind of effing up takes some talent and lifelong practice, gotta admit. How's Papi gonna bail his young arse out this time, or is Papi finally going let Jyoonya drown in his own crap? The world waits to see. :popcorn:

[niceypoo]

45. I thought handing out borrowed money was supposed to magically jump start the economy??

Gawd this country is embarrassing sometimes

[liberal N proud]

46. bu$h borrowed the money from China so we could spend it at Wal-Mart

who will send it directly back to China.

What a cluster fuck!

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

47. Bingo!

[LynnTheDem]

49. bUsh White House blames bUsh White House.

And even the bUsh White House can't see the incredibly deep fucking irony of that.

[rcsl1998]

55. .