Not So Fuzzy Math

TCS Daily ^ | 7/14/2006 | John Merline

[Jane2005]

The latest figures on the federal deficit had Washington all atwitter this week. The Bush administration is crowing about the fact that the deficit is coming in much lower than the budget forecasters had predicted a few months ago (which, come to think of it, doesn't say much for the White House's ability to made short-term budget forecasts). Democrats are casting aspersions, saying the result is merely a reflection of that fact that the rich are getting richer. What's the alternative they would prefer? That the rich didn't get richer, and the deficit is bigger? Or that the middle class paid more in taxes?

But what do to these budget results really mean? Are Bush's tax cuts throwing off revenue, Laffer-like? Has spending under this administration gotten out of control? Is the Medicare drug benefit blowing a hole in the budget? All of these arguments have been made by one side or the other.

[driftless]

thanks to Bush's tax cuts, everyone who pays taxes, like me and my wife, have more money. The whole deficit problem to me is a joke. The fact is there is no willpower on either side of the political spectrum to cut spending.

Furthermore it looks like if there were no Iraq war, the budget would be balanced. But then we would be paying a lot more down the road in terrorist losses ala 9/11. The dirty secret is that libs only want to cut spending on national defense..the spending that is the most important. But cutting away the huge amount of fat in the budget that they've (Dems) created...well heck no, can't do that.