2 + 2 = -2.3 trillion

Creative Accounting

...the Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites) predicted the government will accumulate another $855 billion in deficits over the next decade.

The projection, for the years 2006 through 2015, is almost two-thirds smaller than what congressional budget analysts predicted last fall. But the drop is due largely to quirks in budget estimates that required the agency to exclude future Iraq and Afghanistan war costs and other expenses. Last September, the 10-year deficit estimate was $2.3 trillion.

The CBO also projected this year's shortfall will be $368 billion. That was close to the $348 billion deficit for 2005 that it had forecast last fall. The two largest deficits ever in dollar terms were last year's $412 billion and the $377 billion gap of 2003.

Bush budget alarms GOP, angers Dems

Taken together, the new estimates appear to make Bush's goal of halving the deficit by 2009 more difficult. They also put renewed pressure on the White House and Congress to address rising red ink.

Bush intends to halve the deficit by 2009? Riiiiight.

King George is still a kid running up George & Bar's credit card without ever having to consider the bill. Except it's not the Bushes' credit card - it's the economic security of this country - and those responsible for checking the bill are allowing it to be frittered away like glitter on a homemade Christmas stocking.

Conservatives spent the eighties and early nineties pounding it into America's head that deficits matter. They were right, even if their motivations were more than suspect. The Republican call for "fiscal responsibility" had little to do with economic prosperity and everything to do with eliminating as many social programs as possible. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.Today's Republicans, with a little help from their counterparts across the aisle, conveniently ignore yesterday's unending call for fiscal restraint because neoconservatism is all about immediate gratification. When Jim Morrison sang "We want the world and we want it now," he wasn't referring to a multi-trillion-dollar smash & grab, but that single lyric reveals everything one needs to know about the priorities of neo-conservative cultists. Always eager to completely gut any aspect of the American economy which serves as a social investment, we can be certain the same neocons who express concern over the spiraling deficits are quietly savoring the coming economic cataclysm.