Bush Deficit, where is it today???

[Epidemic]

Just curious

Taxes were lowered right?

are revenues up or down now?

MTA do you have any input?




Near as I can tell most of the anti bush crowd have said that the economy would not pick up enough to swallow up a noticeable amount of the 500 billion dollar deficit.

I think that we are talking about a 200 billion dollar deficit. Seems to me as if we have grown revenue

[Theophylact]

Here's where the deficit was last week (first nine months only!).

Tax revenues are up a bit, but spending is skyrocketing.

[Epidemic]

Thank you.

projected deficit 577 billion to 450 billion. That is pretty nice so far. wonder where it will all shake out.

All in all it appears as if the tax cut is not killing us.

Corporate taxes went up 44% to 144 billion. That aint half bad considering the huge tax cuts on corporate america.

If bush would have avoided those stupid moronic entitlements which flew through congress we would already probably be in a surplus.

I would much rather blow up iraq at a 1 time cost of 400 billion than raise an entitlement 100 million for ever.

[johnnycombat]

The total debt is still a tinsy but high

$7.2 trillion and growing

http://www.toptips.com/debtclock.html

[Harold7]

As long as the politicians keep spending money to buy votes, there is no possiblility that deficits will ever stop until society collapses from the weight of debt that can never be paid off.

The government has to keep inflating the money supply by creating debt...it's all a numbers game for the benefit of the banking interests and corporations... a symbiotic relationship if there ever was one, the bankers need an ever expanding source of money (the Federal Reserve) to feed the debt servicing needs of large corporations that get to pay back their debt with dollars that aren't as valuable as the ones they borrowed.

Calling this a Bush(or Clinton or Reagan) deficit is hardly accurate... all spending bills originate in the House of Representatives and have to go through House/Senate conferences before any spending bill gets to the president's desk, so whatever blame attaches to deficits is the equal responsiibility of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government.

The real blame for deficits rests with the American voters and taxpayers... if they didn't demand that the politicians give them things and then get mad when they're taxed to pay for them, this could never be a problem.

[Theophylact]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harold7

Calling this a Bush(or Clinton or Reagan) deficit is hardly accurate... all spending bills originate in the House of Representatives and have to go through House/Senate conferences before any spending bill gets to the president's desk, so whatever blame attaches to deficits is the equal responsiibility of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government.

Maybe so. But it was a Clinton surplus, not a Clinton deficit, and it was achieved with Republican congresses. So it is possible.

[Epidemic]

Theo could you possibly be honest with yourself. Clintons surplus was a fluke. Nothing clinton did or did not do gave him that surplus.

At least you could possibly associate an action to a reaction with bush's tax cut.

Reduced corporate taxes and corporate profits rose giving greater tax revenue.

[MTAtech]

I've been on vacation for a week with no Internet. One must remember that Theo's estimate of $435B for 2004 hides the true deficit. The Soc. Sec. fund is running a current surplus of about $200B that is subsidizing the deficit. The real deficit is more like $635B per year. To put this into plain terms, the U.S. gov't owes almost four times its annual revenues and is spending 25% more than it takes in every year. If this were you or I, the bank would consider us bankrupt and refuse to lend us money. This is like someone that makes $100,000, owes $750,000 in credit card debts and still spends $125,000 per year.

The problem is that Soc. Sec. has future liabilities that we should be saving for NOW, before the baby boomers retire in just 9 years. Instead, we are building up more debt.