Bush announces $2.4 trillion insanity

Not surprisingly, the proposed $2.4 trillion budget includes deepest cuts for Agriculture and the EPA. I’m not as familiar with the Agriculture Dept, but Bush has certainly not been a friend to the EPA.

This budget includes a $521 billion deficit. That’s like $2,000 per person in the US. There are three of us in my household, so that’s like Bush grabbing my credit card and charging up $6,000 of my money, albeit at a much better interest rate than a credit card typically offers. And that’s this year alone. He’s projecting that by 2009 (after he leaves office) they’ll have that down to just $3,000 a year that they’re borrowing on my personal behalf. Gadzooks. And just like the Child’s Pay commercial says, this is money that my daughter will likely have to help to pay off when she joins the workforce. Thankfully, right now she just needs to worry about learning how to eat oatmeal.

My prediction is that the deficit will be higher than the expected $521 billion. I say this not only because Bush’s staff has had an awfully hard time coming up with reasonable projections (which is not unreasonable, because projecting something like our federal budget is almost like projecting the weather). No, the real reason is this assumption:

Revenues will total $2.04 trillion, a sizable 13.2 percent increase that the administration forecasts will occur from growing tax receipts powered by a stronger economy.

They’re expecting a 13.2% increase in revenues! Sure, it’s possible… but that seems like an awful lot to count on. Being wrong on that figure could add another $100 billion to the deficit.

I know that balancing the budget is hard, but this budget seems just plain irresponsible.