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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (9794)	1/24/2002 2:34:19 PM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 93284

As usual, in a contorted effort to point hate toward Bush and tax cuts. The Washington Post has mixed apples and oranges when looking at the data. The Washington Post presented near term and long term implications [by the CBO]; that's not apple and oranges, it's looking at near term and long term impacts. One section as you kindly highlight says this year the other section as you kindly highlight says long term...how confusing is that? If you want to pretend that they're looking at the same time frame, that's a problem with your comprehension abilities about the CBO report. This leads to a few other interesting insights and questions? A. The CBO forecast was wrong regarding growth this year. The CBO forecast was wrong last year as was the President budget [which includes long term forecasting]. The President's budget was more wrong. B. They didn't anticipate a recession. They anticipated more of a recession than Bush did. C. Tax revenues are strongly effected by growth in the economy. Duh, they are also strongly affected by tax rates. In the near term without the tax cuts, there would have been a near balanced budget. D. Will the CBO forecast of trillions in deficit be right or wrong in the future? You can be guaranteed that forecasts, whether they are from the CBO or the White House Budget Office will be wrong. That's an absolute guarantee. We can't even forecast a quarter let alone ten years. Which is exactly why the Democrats didn't want to commit to long term tax cuts, when no one actually could predict the economy. E. What growth are they projecting to come up with their future figures? As soon as the White House releases it's budget proposal on Feb 4, the CBO will go through the exercise once again. Once the funds are appropriated, they go through the exercise again. Mid-year they do it again. Forecasting is a continual process and everyone of them will be wrong to one degree or another. We don't even know what the actuals are a few months after the close of a fiscal year. The books on federal outlays don't close until five years after the end of the fiscal year. Up until that point, contractors can submit billings adjustments to contracts that were "ended" five years earlier. jttmab