Considering the Bush administration’s track record, this 455 billion is going to start balloning alarmingly. Just two years ago Bush was going on about a [url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/02/24/national/main274334.shtml]6 trillion dollar surplus[/url]. By any standard, going from +6 trillion to -1 trillion is abysmal. Enron would be proud. The [url=http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/world/2003_07/great_empire_or_grand_illusion.html]leftist’s dream of the comeuppance of America[/url] seems more possible with every day of the Bush administration.
[quote]The Federal budget deficit will be $455 billion, roughly 50 percent larger than the White House estimated in February, the President’s Office of Management and Budget said this afternoon.
>>[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/15/politics/15CND-BUDGET.html?ex=1058932800&en=774665d3cb4b1309&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE]NYTimes: White House Foresees Deficit Reaching $455 Billion This Year[/url]
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[quote] ….And why do the Republicans need to spin the deficit? Because it’ll be in the [url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20030715/ap_on_go_pr_wh/worsening_deficits]range of $400-450 billion[/url] each of the next two years (probably more) — far surpassing the previous record of $290 billion notched by papy Bush. And far surpassing the administration’s previous bogus estimate of $300 billion.
And the kicker — those deficit numbers don’t include the costs of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s $48 billion/year, according to Rumsfeld’s numbers, pushing the deficit to a potential mind-boggling $500 billion.
That’s half a trillion, or a full trillion dollars over the last two years of Bush’s presidency.
….So we have record-shattering deficits, the highest unemployment rate in almost a decade, a steady stream of body bags in Iraq, and a credibility crisis as people finally tune in to the administration’s lies.
>>[url=http://www.dailykos.com/archives/003396.html#003396]Daily Kos[/url]
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[quote] $455 billion projected for this year, $475 billion for next. And those numbers exclude the $4 billion/month expense of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
So the numbers should really say $503 billion for this year, and $523 billion for the next. And Republicans are somehow better stewards of the taxpayer’s money?
>>[url=http://www.dailykos.com/archives/003405.html#003405]Daily Kos[/url]
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