White House Foresees 5-Year Debt Increase Of $1.9 Trillion | WP

[Ediacara]

White House Foresees 5-Year Debt Increase Of $1.9 Trillion

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 16, 2003; Page A01


The federal government will pile up $1.9 trillion in new debt over the next five years and will still be running an annual deficit of $226 billion by 2008, long after White House economists assume current war costs will have subsided and the economy will have recovered, the Bush administration projected yesterday.

The White House Office of Management and Budget officially pegged the 2003 budget deficit at a record $455 billion, up sharply from $158 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2002. It is expected to rise to $475 billion in fiscal 2004, even without additional costs for the occupation of Iraq. The deficit is then expected to dip swiftly to $213 billion in 2007 before rising again in 2008, the last year of the White House forecast.

White House budget director Joshua B. Bolten labeled the new deficit figures "a legitimate subject of concern," but he called the red ink "manageable." He offered no new proposals to bring the budget back into balance.

More at the Washington Post

[pw]

1. That's $13,000 in new debt for every working person in the US

Our grandchildren will still be paying the interest on the debts Twit et al are racking up now.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. It's only a Tax increase on the working people...

it's their kids who will pay dearly for this irresponsibility. All the lilly white, rich, conservative, children won't have to pay one cent of it.

[htuttle]

2. One thing Bush has learned from being pResident...

A 'business' is definitely much easier to run when you can print your own money.

[OneBlueSky]

4. and they're WAY underestimating . . .

it's gonna be 3/4 trillion this year alone . . .

[Ediacara]

5. they're assuming

that the economy recovers big time. They've been assuming that for 2 years straight, and the economy has been mediocre at best.

[Proud_American]

6. Two words

IMPEACH BUSH! :evilgrin:

[tom_paine]

7. Which means in actuality it's $3,900,000,000,000

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

We are fucked.

[stevebreeze]

8. trade deficits of the same size

have almost the sane effect as budget deficits. We will not go long with this kind of crap befor some bills come due.
:kick:

[dfong63]

9. has bushie been getting his economic advice from ken lay???

and they say the red ink will magically vanish in 2008... "trust me on this"???

[TahitiNut]

10. That doesn't include "loans" from the Social Security Trust Fund.

In 2002, the Federal Government "borrowed" $165.4 billion from the fund. The (understated) estimate for 2003 is $164.6 billion.

They're projected to "borrow" $180.6 billion, $203.8 billion, $226.1 billion, $247.9 billion, and $266.0 billion in the next five years (2004-2008).

That's another $1.1124 trillion in "borrowing" in the next 5 years!

So, we're looking at an increased National Debt of over $2 trillion in just 5 years.

On top of a National Debt by the end of 2003 that'll be about $7.4 trillion, we'll be seeing a total debt of close to $9.5 trillion 5 years from now, not counting the yellowed IOU's currently found under the dust in the Social Security Trust Fund "lockbox". :eyes:

We won't even talk about the other "trust funds" in government hands that're solely IOU's (like pension trust funds, and the unemployment trust fund).

And that's a (neo)conservative "estimate".


When the annual GDP of the entire country is just shy of $11 trillion, we're talking about an obscene amount of indebtedness.


Indeed, it'd take the TOTAL GDP of the US for virtually an ENTIRE YEAR to pay off that debt.

It gives "pillage" and "plunder" a bad name.