The fact that the budget deficit has reached $455 billion appears to be generating quite a bit of attention in the national media, which is certainly a good thing. The public needs to realize that their government is running up quite a bill — and that all of us will be paying the costs for decades to come. Indeed, the administration, by its own admission, plans to add about $2 trillion to the national debt over the next five years.
I was surprised, therefore, to see that the White House pledged yesterday to cut the deficit in half by 2006.
Naturally, administration officials gave no details as to how they were going to achieve this feat. Cutting the deficit from a half-trillion to a quarter-trillion in a couple of years isn’t particularly easy. It would require higher taxes, reduced spending, and strong economic growth, yet this administration has offered us lower taxes, increased spending, and anemic economic growth. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Just as importantly, I don’t what makes the White House think they have any credibility left on this issue. Bush was dealt a near-perfect hand. When he was inaugurated, the U.S. was enjoying unprecedented fiscal success and the highest surpluses in American history. The president promised to keep the budget balanced and “[pay] down an unprecedented amount of our national debt.” Instead, he ended up adding to the national debt more than any president ever.
When the surplus vanished, Bush said his deficits “will be small and short-term.” This, too, was wrong.
Now the White House wants us to believe that the deficits that they created will be cut in half by 2006. If everything they’ve said so far has turned out to be wrong, why would anyone believe them now?
Fool me once…