Following up on yesterday’s post about the White House’s request for an additional $80 billion for the war in Iraq, according to this morning’s New York Times, the administration’s request will push the federal budget deficit to $425 billion in 2005. From the article:
The White House’s announcement makes it the fourth straight year in which the budget deficit was expected to grow; as recently as last July the administration had predicted that the deficit, which was $412 billion last year, would fall this year to $331 billion.
Meanwhile, the President continues to insist that the tax cuts he pushed through during his first term be made permanent. Not included in this deficit estimate: the cost of privatizing Social Security, or any future war costs.
From farther down in the same NYT article:
In a briefing for reporters on Tuesday, senior administration officials insisted they were still on track to fulfill Mr. Bush’s campaign promise of reducing the federal budget deficit by half by 2009.
In other news, black is now white, and up is down.