Editorial: Gloomy fiscal future

Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

The Congressional Budget Office has reported that the federal budget deficit will soar to a record $422 billion this year. The bipartisan CBO also projected that the government will rack up $2.3 trillion in new debt during the next 10 years. The CBO notes that the debt will grow even more over the next decade -- from $2.3 trillion to $3.6 trillion -- if President Bush convinces Congress to extend his tax cuts. "This is a fiscal situation in which we cannot rely on economic growth to cause deficits to disappear," said CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who used to be an economist in the Bush White House.

So how did President Bush react to this bad news? Tim Adams, policy director for the Bush campaign, actually portrayed this as a positive development, saying that the $422 billion deficit this year is $56 billion less than what the CBO had forecast in March. As Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry aptly noted, "Only George W. Bush could celebrate over a record budget deficit of $422 billion."

President Bush keeps placing future generations greater and greater in debt. He refuses to do the sensible thing and acknowledge that, at the very least, his tax cuts shouldn't be extended. And while the wealthy have benefited greatly from the tax cuts, the cuts haven't done much for the rest of Americans or the economy. As we mentioned in an editorial last week, there has been a net loss of 913,000 jobs since Bush took office -- not exactly a ringing endorsement of Bush's tax policies. It's clear that the path Bush has chosen is fiscally irresponsible. But don't expect any changes as long as Bush is in the White House. The president isn't about to let the facts get in the way of his tax-cut-happy, deficits-be-damned ideology.