C.B.O. analysis argues that nearly 100% of the projected increase in the accumulated federal debt over the next decade will be because of two things:
1) Tax cuts projected for the Middle Class by President Obama. (Extension of AMT 'fix' when it expires, extension of Bush's tax cuts that apply to Middle Class, new Obama Middle Class tax reductions....)
2) And INTEREST on the federal debt.
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... Obama's tax-cutting agenda is by far the biggest contributor to those budget gaps, the CBO said. As part of his campaign pledge to protect families making less than $250,000 a year from new taxes, the president is proposing to prevent the alternative minimum tax from expanding to ensnare millions of additional taxpayers. He also wants to make permanent a series of tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
"Over the next 10 years, those policies would reduce revenues and boost outlays for refundable tax credits by a total of $3.0 trillion," wrote Douglas W. Elmendorf, the CBO director. Combined with interest payments on that shortfall, the tax cuts account for the entire increase in deficits that would result from Obama's proposals.
Obama is convening a special commission to bring deficits down to 3 percent of the economy, but the CBO report shows that Obama could accomplish that goal simply by letting the Bush tax cuts expire and paying for changes to the alternative minimum tax.
Other policy changes, such as Obama's signature health-care initiative and a plan to dramatically expand the federal student loan program, would have significant effects on the budget, Elmendorf wrote, but they generally would be paid for and therefore would not drive deficits higher....
National debt to be higher than White House forecast, CBO says
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2010
washingtonpost.com
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