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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rich4eagle who wrote (221394)	1/23/2002 10:02:23 AM
From: Arthur Radley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Wednesday January 23 8:54 AM ET Congressional Budget Office Says Surplus Will Plunge By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites) on Wednesday predicted the U.S. government's 10-year budget surplus through fiscal 2011 will plunge to $1.6 trillion from the $3.4 trillion it forecast in August, in a report sure to fuel partisan finger-pointing over shrinking surpluses. In testimony obtained by Reuters that was to be unveiled later in the day by CBO Director Dan Crippen, the nonpartisan agency also predicted the federal government will post a $21 billion deficit when this fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, down from its August estimate of a $176 billion surplus. The CBO expects a $14 billion deficit for fiscal 2003, down from the $172 billion surplus it forecast in its last set of long-term projections released in August. By fiscal 2004, it said the government should return to a $54 billion surplus, and surpluses should be sustained through 2012. For fiscal 2003-2012, the 10-year surplus outlook improves to a $2.263 trillion total, the CBO said. The August projections factored in the $1.35 trillion 10-year tax cuts President Bush (news - web sites) pushed through Congress last year. Since then, the economy has slowed and Congress and Bush agreed to spend tens of billions more dollars to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Democrats who opposed the tax cuts as too large say the report shows they were having a bigger impact on the budget than Republicans envisioned. Republicans say the recession and Sept. 11 response spending had much more effect than the tax cuts. Crippen is to present his testimony later in the day, first to the Senate Budget Committee, then to the House of Representatives Budget Committee. MASSIVE PLUNGE The $1.6 trillion surplus forecast through fiscal 2011 marks a massive $4 trillion plunge from the $5.6 trillion 10-year surplus the CBO projected a year ago, before the tax cuts were passed. In his prepared testimony, Crippen said about 60 percent of that decline was due to the tax cuts and additional discretionary spending and their effects on paying interest on the federal debt

To: rich4eagle who wrote (221394)	1/24/2002 4:55:50 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I've never said there isn't waste in the military. But let me tell you a story rich.... Yesterday, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson returned from her 6 month deployment to Bremerton Washington. 49 babies had been born during that voyage. 29 of which had never seen their father before. Nearly ten thousand people were on the pier cheering these brave young military members as they arrived. They were the first crew to arrive in Afghanistan. They had the first pilots which started defending America on it. During their entire voyage. Not ONE person was killed onboard, this while handling hundreds of tons of high explosives. During a time when they were working 15-20 hour days, weeks on end. A strenuous job many Americans could only imagine. A lot of these Sailors, Airmen and Marines are young kids, just barely out of high school. Look around your neighborhoods and imagine the kid at the local McDonald's handling high explosives, manning radars searching for incoming planes, steering a multibillion dollar city on the water. I cannot express the pride I felt as I watched those kids standing tall, acknowledging the cheers of a grateful city. And a grateful nation. Does waste exist in the military? Sure it does. But look what it buys! We have a military continuously taking high school kids, sometimes dropouts, and giving them a great purpose in life! We have a military with leaders who care about those young kids who come and go by the thousands every year. We have a military virtually free of drugs! A military which is creative, continuously learning, improving, and doing what our nation calls on it to do at a moments notice! We have a military which is the best in the world! In summary, we have a military which works! Can you say that about other government agencies?? carlvinson.thesunlink.com