Back in 2004, President Bush promised a five-year plan to cut the federal deficit in half by 2009. From his 2004 State of the Union Address (emphasis added):
In two weeks, I will send you a budget that funds the war, protects the homeland, and meets important domestic needs, while limiting the growth in discretionary spending to less than 4 percent. (Applause.) This will require that Congress focus on priorities, cut wasteful spending, and be wise with the people’s money. By doing so, we can cut the deficit in half over the next five years.
Federal deficit in 2004: $412.7 billion.
Flash forward to an AP story yesterday:
Slumping revenues and the cost of an economic rescue package will combine to produce a huge jump in the deficit to $410 billion this year and $407 billion in 2009, the White House says, just shy of the record $413 billion set four years ago.
But even those figures are optimistic since they depend on rosy economic forecasts and leave out the full costs of the war in Iraq. The White House predicts the economy will grow at a 2.7 percent clip this year, far higher than congressional and private economists expect, and the administration’s $70 billion figure for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is simply a placeholder until the next president takes office.
It seems we’ve got some fuzzy math here. $410 billion is 50% of $412.7 billion? I’m no math major, but that just doesn’t compute.
It’s true that last year’s deficit did fall below the 50% threshold. But according to these most recent projections, it appears that was a one year phenomenon. The deficit problem clearly hasn’t been fixed. It’s simply being passed on to the next administration.
Meanwhile, the coming fiscal Medicare/Medicaid meltdown is now four years closer . . . .