CBO: Current Budget Deficit Equals 2001 Tax Cuts
Based on Joint Committee on Taxation estimates, the tax cuts enacted since January 2001 are costing a total of $258 billion in 2006 (including the increased interest costs of the debt that result from the borrowing that is required to cover the lost revenues). This means that even with the spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the response to Hurricane Katrina, the federal budget would essentially be in balance this year if the tax cuts had not been enacted, or if they had been offset by either increases in other taxes or cuts in programs, as would have been required under the Pay-As-You-Go rules that tax-cut proponents first ignored and then allowed to expire.
So there you go ... gives quite a bit of credence to this quip from Jared Berstein, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute: "If you landed here from Mars and looked at Congress’s agenda, you’d think that the problem in America is that rich people don’t have enough money."
And contrary to the White House spin (and some op-eds), this revised forecast does not mean revenues are up. It means spending is $30 billion less than the Bush Adminstration projected.
In 1999, near the close of the Clinton Administration, surpluses were so extensive that the money would put Social Security and Medicare on a firm foundation and would also "eliminate the federal government's public debt by 2015."
The current federal deficit debt is 8.5 trillion dollars.
US Gross National Debt As Percent of Gross Domestic Product.