Republicans Pounce on Congressional Budget Office Estimates

Friday, March 20, 2009
by Mark Murray
from MSNBC

From NBC's Mark MurrayRepublicans have seized on today's news that the budget deficit, per the Congressional Budget Office, will top $1.8 trillion this year and will reach nearly $1.4 trillion in 2010 -- more than the Obama administration's estimate.

Said Sen. John McCain in a statement: “The Congressional Budget Office report proves that the Administration has indeed engaged in a policy of generational theft. The CBO numbers show the reality of the fundamentally flawed assumptions of the president’s budget and make clear what it really is: a risky, debt-ridden threat to the nation."

Here's Sen. John Thune: “These numbers are staggering and prove that spending in Washington is out of control. It is unconscionable to borrow this much money from China and force American families and small businesses to cover the cost through higher taxes."

And House Minority Leader John Boehner: "We simply cannot continue to mortgage our children and grandchildren's future to pay for bigger and more costly government. Families and small businesses across America are making difficult budget decisions each and every day during this recession, and it's time for Washington to do the same. Unfortunately, the President's budget doesn't do that."
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Congressional Budget Office: Annual deficits will be much worse than Obama thinks

"The nation’s debt would grow to 82 percent of the overall economy by 2019 under Obama’s policies, compared to the previous average of 40 percent…"

This country can't survive with a debt ratio like that.
Rees

posted at 3:15 pm
March 20, 2009
from Hot Air.com
by Allahpundit

Good news and bad news. The good news is, the GOP’s chances of a comeback are looking brighter than ever. The bad news is, I’m not sure what’ll be left for them to come back to.

To put these numbers in context, bear in mind that last year’s deficit of $459 billion was the largest on record.

In a new report that provides the first independent analysis of President Obama’s budget request, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the administration’s agenda would generate deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion a year over the next decade — $2.3 trillion more than the president predicted when he unveiled his spending plan just one month ago.

And while Obama would come close to meeting his goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term, the CBO predicts that the nation’s annual operating deficit would never drop below 4 percent of the overall economy over the next decade, a level administration officials have said is unsustainable because the national debt would grow too rapidly.

By the CBO’s estimate, for example, the nation’s debt would grow to 82 percent of the overall economy by 2019 under Obama’s policies, compared with a pre-recession average of 40 percent…

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (N-N.D.) has said the gloomier CBO forecast would require “adjustments” to Obama’s budget, though he declined to specify what changes would be necessary.

Adjustments in numbers or adjustments to the whole grand Great Society II scheme? Only the former, promises Obama budget guru Peter Orszag, vowing not to sacrifice The One’s health care/energy/climate change/education agenda. To which I say, we’ll see about that.

Robert Reich lays it out plainly: “The Wall Street bailout is starting to look like the most expensive tax-supported fiasco in history… The president cannot afford to lose the public’s confidence that his administration is a careful steward of the public’s money. The public was willing to go along with a large stimulus package. But it won’t go along with a second stimulus, and certainly not another TARP. And until the public feels confident that its money isn’t being thrown down a rat hole, it may balk at other ambitious undertakings such as healthcare or education or the environment.” Indeed, which means all that stands between Obama and a congressional revolt is the bank-healin’ mojo of … Tim Geithner. Good luck, Barry.

Exit question: Why do I have a sudden irresistible urge to start watching Glenn Beck?

Update: The GOP goes appropriately nuclear.
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There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression

Six months after the collapse, a "pandemic of fear."

from The Wall Street Journal
by Peggy Noonan
March 20, 2009

It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath the economic blow. There are two parts to this. One is that we have arrived at the first fatigue. The heart-pumping drama of last September is gone, replaced by the drip-drip-drip of pink slips, foreclosures and closed stores. We are tired. It doesn't feel like 1929, but 1930. People are in a kind of suspended alarm, waiting for the future to unspool and not expecting it to unspool happily.
Associated Press

Two, the economy isn't the only reason for our unease. There's more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don't talk about this much because it's too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as "the designated mourner," from the title of the Wallace Shawn play.
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