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January 26, 2005

Cutting the Deficit by Spending More Money

It didn't take long for my recently expressed cynicism about George W. Bush's pledge to cut the deficit in half in five years to be validated by events in Washington.

Today's Washington Post reports:

Additional war spending this year will push the federal deficit to a record $427 billion for fiscal 2005, effectively thwarting President Bush's pledge to begin stanching the flow of government red ink, according to new administration budget forecasts unveiled yesterday.

Administration officials rolled out an $80 billion emergency spending request, mainly for Iraq and Afghanistan, conceding that the extra money would probably send the federal deficit above the record $412 billion recorded in fiscal 2004, which ended Sept. 30. Bush has pledged to cut the budget deficit in half by 2009, a promise the administration says it can keep. But at least for now, the government's fiscal health is worsening.

Lest you think the president and Congress bear any responsibility for this mess, one "senior administration official" placed the blame squarely on "insurgents": "There is no question that [the insurgents], with relatively small expenditures, are proving themselves to be able to force us into much larger ones."

Among those "much larger" expenditures: $1 billion to defeat roadside bombs. Clearly we are winning, and anyone who suggests otherwise is a defeatist, anti-American commie.

Posted by Mike Tennant at January 26, 2005 01:23 PM

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