Molly Ivins: Our finances are in a state

Our finances are in a state
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate

My fellow Americans, the state of the union's finances is enough to make an Enron accountant gag.

When George W. Bush took office, he was handed a going concern. Projected annual surpluses from 2002 to 2011 were $5.6 trillion. In its most recent projection, the Congressional Budget Office says it expects $1.4 trillion in total deficits from 2004 to 2013.

Bush's new future spending proposals -- including everything from the goofy manned-flight-to-Mars to the promotion of marriage -- already total an additional $2 trillion.

When Bush took office, the national debt was $5.7 trillion, and his first budget proposed to reduce it by $2 trillion over the next decade. Today, the debt is $7 trillion.

Last year, Bush predicted a deficit of $262 billion. According to the CBO, the deficit is currently $480 billion. Bush plans to cut biomedical research, health care, job training and veterans funding, and that still leaves a projected deficit of $450 billion.

It is unclear to me why anyone would believe anything the president says about our fiscal situation. Keep in mind that this is a man who took three Texas oil companies into bankruptcy....cont'd

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