No Deficit of Horrendous Economic Policy

Chattanooga, Tenn. - Chattanooga Times Free Press November 8, 2004 - Editorial - No link available "The deficit-ridden Bush administration will have to borrow another $147 billion mostly from Asian central banks – in just the first quarter of 2005 – to keep its checks from bouncing, the Treasury Department confirmed the day after the election. At that rate, the federal budget deficit for the 2004-05 fiscal year will end up close to $600 billion. And that's not counting the annual Social Security surpluses ($65 billion next year) the Bush team has been gobbling up every year since taking office to mask the true size of Mr. Bush's deficit-spending and borrowing binge. Nor does it count new funding, now estimated at $75 billion, that Bush officials have confirmed they soon must seek to pay the rising costs of the Iraq war in 2005… "The president's borrowing binge for the first four years has already increased the national debt by 40 percent, from $5.25 trillion to $7.35 trillion, making the United States by far the biggest debtor nation in the world. At the same time, the Treasury Department reports, annual revenue to the government from taxes has fallen by $100 billion this year below the level it was when Mr. Bush took office in 2001, due mainly to tax cuts, not the brief recession. In the same period, spending has soared; this year's spending by the Bush administration will be $400 billion higher than when he took office… "The most frightening part of all this rising debt for unsound policies is the risk to the national and global economies. Mr. Bush's policies invite excessive reliance on the Chinese and Japanese central banks that are now buying most of the Treasury notes Washington has to float to sop up its red ink and keep its checks from bouncing. That's extraordinarily risky because it makes the United States so vulnerable to Asian decisions. It compromises U.S. independence, as well. And it threatens global financial and economic instability: When we can't keep our fiscal house in order and catch a cold, the countries tied to our economy catch pneumonia."

To quote a famous singing duo from the 60's: "And the beat goes on..."

Aww, come on. 51% of the American public can't be THAT wrong.