Canadian Cynic

Republicans burying themselves in fuzzy math

More from those fine folks who are bringing you democracy and stability in the Middle East by bombing the cities into rubble and slaughtering the citizens:

"President Bush signaled yesterday that he would add personal investment accounts to the Social Security system, simplify the tax code without raising taxes and cut the budget deficit in half, all before he leaves office in 2009."

"Ambitious as those promises are, they may be mathematically impossible, budget and policy analysts say."

And what's so impossible about it, you ask? Keep reading:

"But in an independent analysis of that budget, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded it would not fulfill that promise. The deficit in fiscal 2004, which ended Sept. 30, was $413 billion. Under Bush's plan for spending and taxes, the deficit would be $258 billion in 2009. If anything, that may understate the size of the deficit in coming years because it does not include any additional costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon is expected to seek an additional $70 billion early next year."

Yes, only in Chimpy's parallel universe is 258 half of 413. [Whoops, see ADDENDUM below.] And are you surprised by any of this? Remember, these are the folks who don't believe in global warming and reject evolution in favour of Christian fundamentalist creation science. What makes you think they'd be any better at simple arithmetic?

Further thoughts: You really have to read that entire article to even begin to understand how hopelessly unrealistic and/or dishonest Bush is. Think about it -- he's promising to:

• allow workers to transfer some of their Social Security payments to private accounts,
• reform the tax code without increasing taxes overall,
  
• not cut defense or homeland spending, and
  
• increase spending on education
  

all the while claiming that he'll still halve the deficit by 2009. How stupid do you have to be to believe this? (No, no, don't answer that, it's rhetorical. Really.)

ADDENDUM: Ah, now I see where this administration got their "halving" the deficit fiction. I failed to read far enough into the article. The Bushies are not calculating half the deficit based on its actual, reality-based value. No:

"Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the White House budget office, said the president can and will cut the deficit in half by 2009. But, he said, the deficit in 2009 would be half what the White House first projected it to be for 2004: $521 billion."

In other words, their idea of "half" is half of some fictional, convenient overestimate. Please, dear Lord, just strike me dead now and put me out of my misery.