Bush Celebrates Fourth Largest Deficit In History

[RedEarth]

Today, the Office of Management Budget projected a $296 billion federal deficit for fiscal year 2006. Bush held a press conference arguing that this is a vindication of his economic policies.

Actually, it would be the fourth largest deficit of all time. Here’s the top five:

1. 2004 (George W. Bush) $413 billion
2. 2003 (George W. Bush) $378 billion
3. 2005 (George W. Bush) $318 billion
4. 2006 (George W. Bush) $296 billion (projected)
5. 1992 (Geroge H. W. Bush) $290 billion

When President Bush came into office, he inherited a surplus of $284 Billion. At that time, the Bush administration predicted a $516 billion surplus for 2006.

The fact that Bush now considers a $296 billion deficit an occasion to celebrate shows how far we’ve fallen.


http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/11/fourth-largest-deficit/

[BOSSHOG]

1. And as dick cheney says

"Deficits don't matter, ronald reagan proved it." Maybe I should go to town and survey the poor and middle class folks to see how well there economy is doing.

[geomon666]

2. Christ...n/t

[AndyA]

3. President Bush is an embarrassment to the people of America

Instead of celebrating this accomplishment, he should vow to work harder to further reduce the deficit, tighten government spending, put a stop to wasteful no-bid contracts, and start pulling troops out of Iraq to reduce costs over there and free up some money for urgent needs here at home.

Bush is the worst President ever, and he has taken government and politics to new lows.

[Debau2005]

4. So...

If I owe MORE money that means that my budget is a success? WTF!

But it's nice to know that my increasing debt load is a vindication of my economic policies.:sarcasm:

[progressoid]

6. Good point.

I guess I shouldn't be worried about my mounting personal debt either. Evidently debt is good.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

5. Ok, but if the high was 413 bl and the current is 296 bl, doesn't

that mean that the deficit is in fact going down now?

[displacedtexan]

7. Does this look like an improvement?

[Freedom_from_Chains]

9. But that was not the question. n/t

[displacedtexan]

10. You'd have to believe BushCo's "estimates" to believe this improvement.

From Josh Marshall:

The more you think about it, the more surpassingly amazing it is how big a fool you need to be to fall for the White House's song and dance today about the falling budget deficit.

The budget deficit last year was $318 billion.

In February, the White House 'estimated' (I use quotation marks because this is a standard trick for the Bush White House) the deficit for 2006 would be $423 billion.

Today they released a new estimate that it would be $296 billion.

In other words, between February and July tax cuts reduced the deficit by a whopping $127 billion.

Would you fall for this?

Personally, I don't believe a word that BushCo says, and that goes for their
"estimates."

[Freedom_from_Chains]

11. And that would be a valid and logical question to ask as concerns

these figures. However, no one was making that argument, they were just criticizing, which gives the right pundits the opportunity to claim, "see, liberals talk doom and gloom even when the news is good."

And that was kind of my point, based on just the figures presented it looks like things are improving. But how are we arriving at these figures, are they coming from cuts we are taking from other areas of government, are they being massaged and not just sure they are, but how are they being massaged. Those approaches would be valid, and interesting rebuttals.

However, if one has ever tried to work through federal budget figures they know that it can be a full time job by itself. Certainly something I do not have time for.

That was the point I was trying to make, don't just say it's bad news, demonstrate how it is bad news.

[BlueJazz]

16. The simple comparison is this scenario:>>>

Husband: Geez..Honey..after reviewing our budget, we're $1475.00 short of paying our bills for this month.

Wife: Oh No!..What are we going to do?

Later;

Husband: Honey!!..I made a mistake!..We're only $1047.00 short.

Wife: Whee! I'll call the baby-sitter and we'll go out and celebrate ...
AFTER we make passionate love..(Wink-Wink)

Husband (to Himself) ..Heh..Heh...Works every time.....

[Freedom_from_Chains]

24. And there is nothing wrong with rewarding oneself when making

progress toward a goal. It helps keep motivation going.

[stepnw1f]

20. Whatever Man... My Grandkids are Gonna Be Paying for This Crook

So those two-bit bullshit artists on the right can spout all the nonsense they want. Until then, we'll keep pointing out the Hard "Inconvenient Truth" that the right wing doesn't want us on the "left" to talk about.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

23. And just what is this "Hard, Inconvenient Truth," you are talking about?

[Lasher]

29. Declining deficits

FY 2000 $236B surplus
FY 2001 $127B surplus
FY 2002 $159B deficit
FY 2003 $378B deficit
FY 2004 $413B deficit
FY 2005 $318B deficit
FY 2006 $296B deficit (projected)

The budget deficit did indeed go down in 2005, according to the actuals. One year doesn't make a trend, but I think we'll see another reduction when the final 2006 results come in this October. If so, then it would be accurate to say the deficits are going down. This is not good news, it's just not as bad as it has been.

Junior has a history of cherry picking results, as I have pointed out elsewhere. True to form, he's crowing about the 2005 reduction and the current projection, and wants us to forget about his deficit increases of 4 straight years, which created the FY 2004 high water mark from which he now seeks to improve.

The thing is, however, he doesn't really care about the deficits. Quite the contrary, he intentionally built up the deficits, and therefore our current national debt, primarily with tax cuts that mostly benefitted his wealthy 'base'. Having done so, he's been using these fiscal liabilities as an excuse to gut our New Deal social programs, which he hates. This applies in particular to Social Security.

He just wants to convince us that the deficits are understandable; or not his fault; or improving, thanks to his personal supply-side wisdom; or that they don't really matter until you start talking about funding our social programs.

[kentuck]

13. $413 billion was a projection....

By the Administration. Even though the previous year was $318 billion deficit? Why would they project a $413 billion deficit?? When the deficit came in at less, it appears there was a huge deficit decrease. it looks good for the election. Period. End of story. The truth.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. No

You will note that in every one of those other years, the "projected" deficit was always far less than the eventual deficit turned out to be.

So, one cannot draw any conclusion as to the "improvement" because the number you see now, is not real. It's a guess, based upon notoriously poor assumptions. The others are actual values.
The Professor

[rock]

8. Hey, do you all notice a pattern there?

Maybe he doesn't understand what vindication means.

[Lasher]

18. Managing Expectations

Junior’s propaganda ministry has long exhibited a highly recognizable pattern of gloomy predictions and unambitious goals, followed by high-fiving over results that suck.

In early 2001, the President's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) announced that if the first round of Bush's $2.1 trillion income tax cuts were passed quickly, it would result in the creation of 800,000 additional jobs by the end of 2002 due to the tax cut alone.

And, once again, in February 2003 the President's CEA assured that the adoption of a second round of Bush tax cuts would create 1.4 million additional jobs - 510,000 in 2003 and another 891,000 for 2004 - all solely attributable to the tax cuts.

All total, that amounts to a Bush promise of 2.2 million jobs created between 2001 and 2004 as a direct consequence of passage of the $2.1 Trillion tax cuts mostly for the rich.

Those jobs never materialized. In our history there is a total of 15 years when a president couldn't claim that more Americans are working than ever before, three have been on Bush's watch -- 2002, 2003 and 2004.



http://zfacts.com/p/563.html

But The Decider has never been reluctant to brag about cherrypicked results, despite his astounding failures.

Bush's Skewed Outlook
By David Lazarus
Wednesday, June 1, 2005

At a news conference Tuesday, Bush wasted no time in declaring his desired theme of the day: "Our economy is strong."

"I say it's strong," he said of the economy, "because we've added over 3. 5 million new jobs over the last two years, and the unemployment rate is 5.2 percent.

<snip>

More than 3.5 million jobs may have been created during the past two years as the nation's economic recovery limped forward. But this president hasn't been in office for just two years. He's been in the White House more than four.

Since January 2001, when Bush took office, the U.S. economy has added a total of only about 800,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department.

To put that in context, about 2.1 million jobs were added to the economy annually over the previous two decades, including intervals of recession.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/01/BUGDLD17TI1.DTL&type=business

And now that Junior says he's going to cut his deficits in half, he’s being less than honest about this goal. He cites his own inflated 2004 projection of $521B as the number to cut in half, but the 2004 actual was $412B. This fraud needs to be exposed every time it is perpetrated, which is often. Half of $412B is $206B, not $236B.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. Bush made Cs in school, only because his daddy had cash.

The boy can't cipher, but he can cheerlead and mislead with the best of them.

[Lasher]

26. Were you thinking about Saint Ronnie of Reagan, Hubert?

I think you must have had this quote in mind:

"I never knew anything above Cs."
--President Reagan, in a moment of truthfulness, describes his academic record to Barbara Walters, November 27, 1981

http://www.geocities.com/thereaganyears/reaganquotes.htm

Or maybe Junior said it too. They're quite a bit alike.

[Hubert Flottz]

28. Poppy paid the fees

Dumbya got the Cs...

[SpiralHawk]

14. But, but, but Republicon crony oil profits are up massively

And that's something we can all cheer about as we pump $4 a gallon gas

[DemonFighterLives]

15. Thanks for the info.

I think the knucklehead was really cheery over this. :silly:
I guess he is just glad to have Social Security to rob or things would be worse.
:dem:

[Fermezlabush]

17. You mean, his only competition is...himself? first 3 his as well?

My first thought upon reading the headline was: "Who were the other 3 idiots doing worse that W?"

[Lasher]

19. This is typical

Junior's sorry performance can only look good when it is compared to more of his own sorry performance.

[Darkhawk32]

22. This is yet another "projection". Expect the final result to be closer ..

to $400 billion again.

Plus, I don't think the cost of the wars are included in this either.

[Lasher]

25. The final result will be announced right before the November elections

I figure they will find a way at that time to report that they haven't sucked quite as much as this latest projection indicates, and then they'll have a big celebration over a deficit that's 'only' the fourth or fifth largest in history.

[robinlynne]

27. and the fact that he can celebrate anything when the article about him

sits in between one about fifty people dying every day in Iraq, and 20 bodies found in Iraq, is digusting.

[Johonny]

30. Sure is good news

So we've cut taxes to the rich but we are raising more money in taxes than expected. Oh and that medical drug plan is costing less than expected. Sounds like the middle class is paying more for crappier than expected service. Woot!

[fordnut]

31. losing money

I wonder how long anyone operating a small business with a deficit(I call it a loss) year after year would be able to stay in business.