Editorial: Debt, tax cuts do not work

Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005 | 7:54 a.m.

With a national debt that has now soared past $8 trillion, it would be reassuring to look ahead and see some sign that federal revenues and costs were stabilizing. But here is what is actually on the horizon: Rapidly increasing costs and a Bush administration plan for decreasing revenue through tax cuts.

Millions of baby boomers are beginning to retire, adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the projected cost of Medicare. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will cost the federal government more than $200 billion. A $286 billion transportation bill was recently passed. It is incalculable how much a bird flu pandemic would cost if one develops. Social Security faces a multitrillion-dollar deficit. And even without these expenses, the federal government has been spending about $400 billion a year more than it receives in tax revenue.

Adding to these fiscal concerns is the Iraq war and the fight against terrorism. The Pentagon is straining to stay within its current $500 billion budget (which includes supplemental funding). A report last month by the Congressional Budget Office says that, given its accelerating costs, the Pentagon may need an additional $150 billion a year.

A recent article by the Newhouse News Service, based on government sources, listed some of the reasons why Pentagon spending is increasing at such a rapid pace.

Just for the war in Iraq, for example, the Army had to add an additional 30,000 soldiers at a cost of $1.2 billion a year. Throughout the military, pay rose from $123 billion to $158 billion from 2000 to 2004. For the same years, private housing for service members rose from $7.3 billion to $12 billion, a cost that continues to rise rapidly. Health care benefits went from nearly $14 billion to more than $23 billion. And expanded health benefits for National Guardsmen, reservists and their families have added more billions to the budget.

Just to keep within the projected $150 billion increase, the Pentagon is being forced to cut deeply into its Navy and Air Force manpower, and to reduce outlays for superior weapons systems, including the F-22 supersonic stealth fighter plane. In short, the Pentagon is in danger of being unable to "transform" the military, as is the goal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He wants to rely less on troops than on advanced and costly weaponry.

In the face of all this debt and its consequences, President Bush still wants more tax cuts and to make permanent his first-term tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2011. Can the country afford to lose trillions in this manner? We should answer for those most affected, those who would bear the brunt of this irresponsibility -- those who are not yet born. They would say no, and so should we.