Critics Call Bush's Deficit Efforts Feeble

Maybe Bush wants his deficit hurting the economy of future Presidents? Bush may reach his deficit "cutting" goal, but only by ignoring the costs of items like revamping Social Security, alternative minimum tax termination, and the Iraq/Afghanistan war - I wonder if the media will notice?


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HALVING_THE_DEFICIT_QA?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Critics Call Bush's Deficit Efforts Feeble

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) --<snip> Q: If last year's deficit set a record, it had to be worse than the previous year's shortfall. Doesn't that mean Bush lost ground trying to reach his goal?

A: Last year's deficit was $35 billion worse than in 2003. Yet administration officials say they made big progress toward reaching their target.

That's because White House budget chief Joshua Bolten defined their starting point as the $521 billion deficit for 2004 that the administration projected a year ago.

Since the actual 2004 shortfall ended up at $412 billion, the White House claims it made progress to the tune of $109 billion. It also let them set a bigger deficit target for 2009: $260.5 billion, which is half of $521 billion.

Had they used last year's actual $412 billion deficit as their marker, their goal would be a tougher $206 billion shortfall. Had they started with the actual 2003 deficit of $377 billion, they would be shooting at an even harder-to-achieve $188.5 billion for 2009.<snip>