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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster
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To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (54895)8/7/2011 10:29:45 PM
From: joefromspringfield1 Recommendation  Read Replies (2) of 103300
 
But if you examine the details of the S&P–Treasury–White House dispute, rather than a “math error” you will find what is better described as a “difference of opinion” about a forecast for future government spending. In other words, the issue is about the appropriate “baseline” for government spending in the absence of more actions. Since when did different views or assumptions about the future become a math error?

In their original draft report, S&P evidently assumed that discretionary government spending would grow by about 5 percent per year over the next 10 years if no further action were taken (beyond the Budget Control Act of 2011). In the final draft, at the urging of the Treasury, they assumed that discretionary spending would grow at about 2.5 percent per year if no further actions were taken. The first assumption leads to a higher level of debt than the second. Over 10 years the difference is about $2 trillion.

So this is a matter of different assumptions rather than a math mistake. In fact, the alternative assumption of faster spending growth is not so unreasonable, and whether or not S&P put it in their final report it is something they or anyone else should worry about.
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