$490 billion
Posted on July 28th, 2008 by bile Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, deficit spending, energy independence, George W. Bush, high energy prices, Iraq, John McCain, United States, USDThe U.S. budget deficit will widen to a record of about $490 billion next year, an administration official said, leaving a deep budget hole that will constrain the next president’s tax and spending plans.
The projected deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is higher than the $407 billion forecast by President George W. Bush in February. The bigger shortfall reflects dwindling tax receipts because of the U.S. economic slowdown, the cost of a $168 billion economic stimulus package and spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The deficit projection will burden either Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, the presumptive presidential nominees of the major political parties, with a constricted budget that has little room for cutting taxes or increasing spending. The next president also will inherit the deepest housing recession in a generation, fears of a crisis in the banking industry, a falling dollar and high energy prices.
McCain has promised corporate and individual tax cuts that are projected to cost $4.2 trillion over 10 years along with spending to promote U.S. energy independence. Obama is vowing to enact a plan for universal health care, middle-class tax cuts and proposes spending on education and job training.
QUICK!!! START THE PRINTING PRESS!!! If they don’t get those bills of credit ah-flowing we won’t be able to have that $490 billion deficit next year.
Good thing the media backed the one candidate with an economics background.
Oh wait. Shit.
Update: I should have checked the new posts before hand… oh well. This is serious enough to post twice :-)
8 Responses to “$490 billion”
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July 28th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
But but but we will be running a surplus by 2012!
July 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Surplus of what? Worthless FRNs?
July 28th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
It’s all in the semantics, bile.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I don’t think the government is seriously interested in balancing the budget, so these numbers that each American “owes” may as well be double or triple what they are. We’re bound to loose our AAA credit rating before there’s a balanced budget.
July 28th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Of course they aren’t. If they were they wouldn’t have done it in the first place. And yes it’s “owes.” I don’t owe a damn thing. I never asked for their “services.” Barr recently sent out an email which said something about how the Fannie/Freddie bailout added $X to what “you owe”… bugged me.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
The majority of voters want a balanced budget. A majority don’t want bailouts. The majority want their leaders to actually read what they pass into law. One might call these pie in the sky desires, but have our elected leaders even attempted to represent us?
July 28th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I’m not sure about a majority but I have read some people having issues with things like the “Read the bills act”. The quorum thing came off as more of a way to gum up the machinery, which is fine by me.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I think it’s pretty safe to call anyone who doesn’t support legislature actually reading what they pass, fasicists or authoritarian, and moving on to the next person. Unless they are anarchists who don’t care what the laws say because they don’t plan on following them. Then you just call them retarded for not being in favor of defense.