Text 18340, 54 rader
Skriven 2006-03-15 09:35:00 av BOB SAKOWSKI (1:123/140)
Ärende: Big Spenders
====================
The case of the 12 zeros

By Mortimer B. Zuckerman

3/21/05


The Bush administration and the Republican Party seem to have lost 
all capacity for financial self-control, turning their backs on the GOP's 
historical record of responsible fiscal management. The Republicans 
have squandered the huge budget surplus they inherited by spending 
not just on guns and butter but on guns, butter, and tax cuts. Because 
of government obfuscation, most Americans don't realize the deep 
fiscal hole we're in--and the fact that we're still busy digging. As David 
Walker, the head of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, 
pointed out, "The federal government's obligations, current liabilities, 
and unfunded fiscal commitments are over $43 trillion and rising. . . . 
Yes, that's trillions with 12 zeros rather than billions with nine zeros."

The estimated net worth of American families is slightly over $47 trillion, 
and nearly all of it--90 per-cent--would be needed to cover government's 
current obligations. And don't think we can grow our way out of this hole. 
According to the GAO, it would take real double-digit growth over the 
next 75 years to pay off our current debt--an impossible task, 
considering that the growth rate during the 1990s boom years averaged 
just 3.2 percent.

A trillion here, a trillion there. The hole is even deeper because these 
debt projections exclude the cost of Bush's second-term agenda, 
which would add over $5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade by 
making his tax cuts permanent ($1 trillion) and privatizing Social 
Security ($1.5 trillion in the first decade; $3.5 trillion in the second)--
not to mention the tens of billions of dollars likely to be spent on 
military operations. And all this spending would come at a time when 
the first baby boomers are on the verge of retiring, causing Medicare 
and Social Security costs to soar. The president says his budget 
would cut the deficit in half by 2009. But this is a mirage. Why? 
Because it excludes the cost of the Iraq war and the cost of his 
privatization program for Social Security--to name just two whoppers.
[snip]

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050321/21edit.htm

Old Mort seems surprised that the avarice consumed SCC republicans 
are so dedicated to bringing America, as we have known it, down to the 
level of a banana republic.  

Guess he hasn't been paying attention.



... Corruption Central, aka the Bush White House
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