It depends on what the meaning of ‘fixing’ is

Bush started his presidency with the largest budget surplus in American history and, in just one term, created the largest budget deficit in American history. This, after running for office supporting a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and decrying deficits as damaging to the “economic prospects of all Americans.”

Which is why it was downright hilarious to hear the president yesterday tell an Alabama audience: “We’re fixing the deficit.” There was no indication he was kidding.

It’s yet another one of those “incompetence vs. dishonesty” moments. Bush is only “fixing” the deficit if you define “fixing” as making something worse. Indeed, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded that Bush’s budget plan increases the deficit by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years. By the White House’s own estimates, the president will fulfill his promise of cutting the deficit in half approximately never.

Either Bush is aware of his own budget policy, in which case he was being deceitful yesterday, or he’s clueless about his immediate fiscal future, which makes him incompetent. It’s really that simple.