Here's a headline that deserves some thought:
"Bush Plan to Halve Budget Deficit in Five Years."
Strictly speaking, the headline is true. By Bush's plan, in five years, the budget deficit would be half what it is now. This means that the budget deficit would be about where it was in 1992. Until last year, 1992 had the highest budget deficit. So, by halving the deficit, we get the third highest deficit in the last dozen years.
And how is this happening? "by pursuing very aggressively his pro-growth economic policies, and by leading the Congress toward overall policies of fiscal restraint" (quote from Joel Kaplan, deputy director of the White House budget office). He goes on to say that these pro-growth policies are to make all of the tax cuts permanent.
Meanwhile, the congress has to make the politically unpopular decisions about what programs to cut to fund these tax cuts.
It's a win-win situation for someone.
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