Free Republic

MEMORANDUMFROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTIntroductionOver the course of the campaign, Senator Kerry has proposed adding more than $2 trillion in new spending to the Federal budget, including his big government take over of health care.  Yet he still claims he will reduce the budget deficit in half during his first term.  Contrary to his claim, third party analysis indicates Senator Kerry underestimates the costs of his proposals and inflates the value of his offsets.  Independent analysts conclude Senator Kerry's numbers just don't add up.  In order to maintain his pledge to cut the deficit in half he will either have to...

Would Senator Kerry’s Budget Really Reduce the Deficit? by Brian M. Riedl September 21, 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry recently pledged that, if elected, he would cut the budget deficit in half by 2008. Given the projected $422 billion budget deficit in 2004, his pledge translates into a $211 billion budget deficit in the next four years.1 Realistically, Senator Kerry's current tax and spending proposals would actually increase the budget deficit. Third-party estimates project that Senator Kerry's proposals would raise the 2008 budget deficit to $525 billion. Even a rosy projection that, whenever possible, relies on the Kerry campaign's...

MEMORANDUM FROM: BC'04 POLICY DEPARTMENTJohn Kerry is now the official nominee of the Democratic Party.  He has made numerous policy proposals, but has yet to explain how he will pay for his promises.  Kerry's empty rhetoric on fiscal responsibility still doesn't answer the fundamental question of how he intends to pay for his campaign proposals.  His tax hikes don't even begin to cover the drastic increases in spending he has proposed, and he owes it to the American people to explain himself.The following balance sheet takes a look at Kerry's current budget promises, using independent third party sources, media sources...

<p>Having spent 15 months promising one new big-spending program after another, John Kerry finally got around to offering his "budget plan" in a recent speech at Georgetown University. He earned an A in rhetoric and an F in math.</p> <p>Citing a "fiscal cancer" that he blamed on the Bush administration, Mr. Kerry's speech was filled with distortions. In particular, for fiscal 2009, the year by which Mr. Kerry pledges to cut the current deficit in half, his rhetoric seems to exceed his math by a cool trillion dollars.</p>