Attention Deficit

The New York Times Times reported yesterday that the budget deficit of the United States government will rise to $427 billion dollars in the year 2005, a number that will likely rise because it does not include any spending that will be added by congress later in the year. This news means that the US government will spend $427 billion more dollars than it takes in from taxes, borrowing the money from foriegn banks, mostly in China and Japan. The situation is obvioulsly a problem, but the Bush administration has shown no ability to deal with it.

Amazingly it was only four years ago when the government had its only budget surplus since the 1840's. There are basically two reasons why the biggest surpus in history turned into the biggest deficit. One is that the government is spending more money, becuasue of the war in Iraq and increased spending in other areas. The other is that the government is getting less money in taxes because the economy has slowed down and Bush cut taxes on the rich. Any solution has to solve at least one of these problems. Either spending must be cut, or taxes must be raised.

Mr. Bush has refused to raise taxes because of ideological constraints. He has also refused to stop spending, not vetoing a single spending bill in his entire term as president. In the next four years he must do one or the other or the deficit will spin out of control and the economy will dip into recession, if not depression. Becuase spending is hard to cut during a war, I would suggest raising taxes on the rich. Unfortunatly Mr. Bush does not agree. Mr. Bush has his own ideas of what the future will look like. On current trends the deficit will grow from $427 billion to $4 trillion by the year 2015. Remember that when you're thinking of thanking Bush for your $45 tax break.

To put that in perspective, by 2015 things will get TEN TIMES WORSE than this: