$318 Billion Deal Is Set in Congress for Cutting Taxes

Has there been anything yet on the costs (and budget) for this iraqi thing? Somwhere I remember reading that it would all be paid for out of the oil sold by Iraq oilfields when they were up and running - which is when?

mamaj, I'm not sure there is an agreement to reimburse us for the cost of the war. I think the oil is going to pay only for their reconstruction. I think we pick up the tab for everything else, including the lost American lives. c.i.

mama:

http://www.costofwar.com

just goes to show that GWBush is all bluster and no brains. c.i.

au, The only problem with that cartoon is that rather than batteries, it's bags of our blood. c.i.

And the car should be a Mecrcedes?

BillW, You do come up with some good graphics. Your last one showing three 'generations' in the future will be funding this administration's tax cuts is about right - but it may also be too conservative. When we look at our long term economic outlook, things look pretty dismal. c.i.

Deficits expected to reach $455B

White House acknowledges ballooning deficit and pledges for the first time to cut it in half.
July 15, 2003: 1:16 PM EDT


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday the federal budget deficit would balloon to a record $455 billion this fiscal year after absorbing heavy costs from the war in Iraq, and then climb $20 billion higher in 2004, a presidential election year.

But the White House said the deficit would improve, pledging for the first time to cut it in half by 2006, though officials did not spell out how they would do so.
Democrats accused President Bush of using rosy economic assumptions to understate the magnitude of a budget gap approaching the half-trillion-dollar mark for the first time.

I wonder how? They don't have a scissors big enough. But the American public should at least be grateful they finally acknowledged that it might be too big and needs to be cut. Maybe another tax cut will help?Duh!

http://www.cnn.com/money/2003/07/15/news/economy/bush_deficits.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

au - Yes, another across the board tax cut would do wonders to help get rid of the budget deficit.

Here's the BIG picture: the world economy is in a slump. It's been in a slump for three years. It's not going to pull out of any slump this year or next. Why, you ask? Because consumer and national debt is at a all time high. Consumers make up 70 percent of the American economy. Most people are putting their money into homes which they think are going to keep up with inflation; but most people forget what happened in Japan. Over-priced reality was the bain of their balloon that burst with a big BANG, and they've been in recession for over 12 years. Does anybody know what's keeping the DOW at over 9000 today? It's called a-i-r. The stuff of which balloons are made. It's beautiful while they last, but too much air, and BANG! c.i.

The Deficit Floats Up and Away

Having done its utmost to choke back the revenue flow into the Treasury, the Bush administration offered a running tab on this year's exploding budget deficit yesterday. To hear the casual patter of White House aides about the deficit, one would think it was pocket change. In fact, the shortfall has ballooned 50 percent in just five months, to $455 billion and counting. This historic high shows no sign of cresting, certainly not while the president's detaxation mania rolls forward. The White House firmly insists that the growing wad of government costs and debt being rolled across the years toward tomorrow's taxpayers is eminently "manageable." Actually, what was manageable was the $127 billion surplus the fledgling administration enjoyed just two years ago.
That surplus has disappeared into the Potomac mists, along with the Republicans' creaky posture as deficit hawks. A decade of deficit spending now awaits the nation, rooted in an anemic economy, pervasive joblessness, the rising costs of the American occupation of Iraq and Mr. Bush's tax cuts for the upper brackets. Independent estimates suggest that the deficit will grow to the half-trillion-dollar level next year and barrel on through the next decade at a cost in excess of $4 trillion once Congress's hypocritical commitment to "sunset" various tax cuts is quietly reversed.
The White House never fails to seize on optimistic predictions that the economy will tick back up zestfully next year in Mr. Bush's "jobs and growth" program, an agenda that has so far delivered far more tax cuts than recovery. A sobering estimate of the detax-and-spend policies of the president and the Republican-controlled Congress is offered by the Concord Coalition, the budget watchdog group, which warns of devastating long-range effects from "a schizophrenic pursuit of small-government tax policies and big-government spending initiatives." Politicians have broken vows not to tap Social Security funds, leaving costly entitlement promises to baby boomers looming at the shore of red ink that now pools forth into the nation. The White House hardly scans that shore, offering no details in its newly minted promise to cut the deficit in half "over the next few years."

Useful website, in case it hasn't been posted already: http://www.epinet.org/