We have new numbers from the C.B.O. and what they show is that the president is taking us into the deep, dark hole of deficits and debt that will take the nation many generations to recover from."
-- Senator Kent Conrad (ND)
On August 26, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office said that the federal budget deficit would be $480 billion next year and could reach a cumulative total of $5.8 trillion by 2013.
In January 2001, when George W. Bush took office, there was a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion.
Factors contributing to a growing deficit:
- Making tax cuts of the past 3 years, due to expire, permanent
- Overhauling the Alternative Minimum Tax
- A major new prescription drug program for the elderly
- Continued increases in discretionary government spending
- Costs of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan
- Increased interest on the debt that will have to be paid
Source: New York Times, 8/27/03
DEFICIT PREDICTIONS (Congressional Budget Office forecast, 8/26/03)
FY'03 = $401 billion
FY'04 = $484 billion
FY'05 = $418 billion
FY'06 = $396 billion
FY'07 = $395 billion
FY'08 = $401 billion
Total = almost $2.5 trillion
The Bush administration has vowed to stay the course, insisting the deficit is manageable considering its relation to the size of the economy. Opinion polls have shown the public is not particularly concerned. (Source: CQ Today Midday Update 8/26/03)
