This is a follow-on of sorts to a post I made three years ago, The Art of Fake Budgeting. Bush has released his budget for 2009, and what it amounts to is a three trillion dollar tissue of lies. They're not even trying to hide the lies anymore. Here are the most egregious phoney assumptions in the plan:
1. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecasts. They don't get much better than this. At a time when the word "recession" is on everyone's lips, Bush assumes a healthy 2.2% growth in GDP. This GDP prediction table says it all.
2. Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The Wall Street Journal writes that in Bush's budget, he assumes that the AMT--the Katrina of tax law--will continue as written (except for a one-year exemption this year). That's right: while Bush calls loudly for the AMT to be repealed, he quietly counts on the financial bonanza that would be reaped if Congress lets the AMT overrun the levees and drown the middle class. Everyone knows this would be untenable, but he needs it to extend his tax cuts for the wealthy beyond 2010. From his own document, here is Bush's assumption for federal revenue:
3. War spending. Even the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Republican Judd Gregg (Republican, NH) says the defense numbers are, "absurd on their face." Bush's budget assumes a piddling $70 billion in funding for 2009 and nothing beyond that! Meanwhile Bush simultaneously urges Congress to pass the $105 billion supplemental funding for 2008, to bring this year's total upwards of $190 million.
4. Social Security. Continuing a long tradition of obfuscation, Bush's 2009 budget counts net income from Social Security taxes to offset the deficit. Without the net excess of funds accrued from Social Security, Bush's actual projected deficit for 2009 would be $611 billion for, not $407 billion. (You can see the figures here.) In any other accounting system, the extra $200 billion would be considered a liability, since it is supposed to be part of a trust fund owed to future payees--but in practice there is no trust fund. Congress has spent the lot.
Meanwhile, the national debt has risen to $9.21 trillion dollars, and interest paid on the debt was $430 billion last year. What a disaster.
Cross-posted at The Citizens