Wanna get away? $2 trillion deficit adjustment as Obama heads to Martha’s Vineyard
From Politico comes this stunning bit of Friday afternoon news, as the first family heads to posh Martha’s Vineyard for a week:
The White House is likely to dramatically increase its projected 10-year budget deficit estimate next week by nearly $2 trillion, senior administration officials said Friday.
Obama administration officials have concluded the economy was much worse last year — and tax revenues much lower — than they had initially assumed, which means that the estimated budget deficit will increase from $7 trillion to about $9 trillion over the coming decade.
The administration have “concluded the economy was much worse last year“? Last Year? And we’re in what, now, sunshine and bunnies? A Reuters article, which seems to be where the story broke today, says,
“The new forecasts are based on new data that reflect how severe the economic downturn was in the late fall of last year and the winter of this year,” said the administration official, who is familiar with the budget mid-session review that is slated to be released next week.
“Our budget projections are now in line with the spring and summer projections that the Congressional Budget Office put out.”
The White House budget office will also lower its deficit forecast for this fiscal year, which ends September 30, to $1.58 trillion from $1.84 trillion next week after removing $250 billion set aside for bank bailouts.
My follow-up question would be why it took the administration months to fall “in line” with the CBO’s deficit estimates. How much uncertainty did that “he said, they said” put into the economy? This administration was supposed to be “the smart one.” “The ones we’ve been waiting for.”
My second follow-up is to ask why the revised deficit forecast for the fiscal year? That $250 billion “set aside for bank bailouts.” When does that get factored back into the equation? Is this like me taking a deduction on business purchases and depreciating it over a year? Something tells me, no, that’s not what this is like. So again, where does that quarter-of-a-trillion dollars get factored in? Why play with the deficit forecast for this year when the long-term deficit just got jacked-up into cold, naked reality?
An Associated Press story on August 4, in the Seattle Times, reported,
The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.
The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to decline 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.
The stories of lower tax receipts didn’t just start this past week, either. The numbers have been on the bad side for some time. Here’s a July Bloomberg story on New York State’s tax revenue drying up. Here’s one about Texas having 6 straight months of sales tax shortfalls. Six straight months in Texas, where we’re supposed to be weathering this recession better than the rest of the country.
It’s no wonder the President is taking time to go on vacation. In Martha’s Vineyard. At a place that costs $35,000 to $50,000 a week.On the environment, I believe when those who keep shouting that the sky is falling start acting like it, and aren’t out flying cross-country on private jets or building mega-million-dollar energy-sucking mansions – when they start acting like things are as bad as they say – I’ll start to believe them. On the economy, though. It’s a different story.
When the President goes vacationing at one of the most expensive vacation spots in the country while quietly doing a Friday afternoon “Bad News Dump” on a multi-trillion dollar deficit adjustment (for the worse)… Well, it’s hard to believe things are not as bad as all evidence to the contrary states. It’s not bad for him, apparently. Just the rest of us.
Where’d I put my cake? I’m getting a little peckish.
as a politician, he has long pulled in far more salary than any of “us” can ever hope to see. to his mind, this is a “no biggie”. this guy is an anti-messiah.
It’s not the salary, the money, or the expense of the vacation that rub me wrong. Dude wants to spend some cash, fine. Just be wary of the image it projects when you’re also dealing with ungodly debt. The president taking this pricey a vacation at this point in our nation’s economy is like Joe Sixpack racking up a credit card to take the brood to Disney World. Probably not a good thing.
[...] referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. Wanna get away? $2 trillion deficit adjustment as Obama heads to Martha’s Vineyard – grabourparty.org 08/22/2009 From Politico comes this stunning bit of Friday afternoon news, as [...]