So, all of those who called the President a liar for forecasting a higher deficit in November than he does now must also now be calling the CBO a pack of partisan liars. Might as well call their sidewalk a liar.
The CBO announced a reduction in their forecast of the deficit from 371 billion (released in March) to $260 billion (released in August). What has happened? Tax cuts have dramatically grown tax receipts.
The argument is the same every time and the tax cutters are right every time. When you cut taxes you spur growth and grow overall tax receipts. It happened in the 1960's with JFK, it happened in the 1980's with Reagan and it happened again in this decade with Bush. But those who don't want to believe that and more, don't want you to believe that, will divert attention with the actual deficit numbers.
I would suggest that the surpluses of the 1990's were the product of two things:
1) a massive reduction in military spending, for which you eventually have to pay and,
2) a hostile Congress that woudn't spend money for President Clinton (remember the gov't shutdown?). We may be headed for more of those days with a Democratic Congress.
The current deficits are quite small (only 2% of GDP - far smaller than historic averages or European country deficits of 3+%) especially when you take into account the wars in two countries, a bloateed medicare bill, a massive farm bill, a massive highway bill, hurricane Katrina and the recession that even Al Gore has said started in the spring of 2000.
So, there we are. Tax receipts grow. More Americans work. Future defecits go down (CBO to release a 10 year update on August 17th) and American capital spending surges to create sustained competitiveness and future growth.
What if George Bush hadn't ruined the economy?
sharptalk