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

To: jttmab who wrote (9802)	1/24/2002 3:49:34 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

It's interesting to note the things you "don't know" you don't care about. Read this and become enlightened. NON-PARTISAN CBO CONFIRMS RECESSION AND WAR CAUSED SURPLUS DECLINE - NOT TAX RELIEF CBO confirms recession and war caused surplus decline: CBO Director Dan Crippen said "over 70% of (FY2002 surplus reduction) results from the weak economy and related technical factors" (source: CBO testimony 1/23/02). CBO said bipartisan tax relief resulted in less than 12% of the surplus decline in FY 2002. CBO Shows Strong Fiscal Position in the Baseline: Slight baseline deficits of $21B in FY 2002 and $14B in FY 2003 give way to a baseline surplus in FY 2004 of $54B. CBO projects a $1.6T surplus between 2002-2011. OMB & CBO Budget Outlooks Are Quite Similar: CBO shows historically small deficits, especially given the simultaneous effects of war, recession, and emergency. However, some differences explain the small variance in surplus projections: . OMB assumes an economic stimulus plan and other policies will be enacted. . CBO assumes the $20B emergency response fund continues indefinitely, which will certainly not be the case. This calculation reduces CBO's 5-year surplus by $100B. The Terrorist Attacks and the Weak Economy Reduced CBO's 10-year Surplus by almost $2T Since CBO's August Update: Since the August CBO update, the 2002-2011 surplus projection fell from $3.4T to $1.6T. The Economy Took a Severe Downturn After September 11th: 943,000 jobs were lost, the stock market dropped, and consumer confidence plummeted. . 943,000 jobs were lost in the last quarter of 2001. . Unemployment rose by close to 1% (0.8%) in the last three months of 2001. . Stock market dropped by 12% by September 21st. . Consumer confidence plummeted 26% by October. . The airport and airline industry was entirely shut down. Recession, War & Homeland Security Spending Were Responsible for over 85% of the Surplus Decline: CBO's projections confirm that tax relief played a minor role in the surplus decline in the next few years - accounting for less than 12% of the decline in 2002 and less than 28% in 2003 (calculations made by OMB based on CBO projections). CBO Already Calculated Effects of Tax Relief in the August Update: The bipartisan tax relief package was already assumed in CBO's August projections.

To: jttmab who wrote (9802)	1/24/2002 4:03:10 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 93284

res- <<<Well, you've got two options [didn't we do this once?]. Give no one any prescription drug benefits at all, Warren Buffet and Al Gore can still get their prescriptions. Though it's not clear how many other people you'll exclude. There is roughly 15% of the population that are not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private health insurance. This group generally is low on the income scale [but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid]. You'll also deny a good number of elderly access to prescriptions but you won't have to worry about Warren or Al. And you've probably denied that hard working mechanic with three kids and a wife. If you want to provide access to free prescription drugs for the population, excluding the top n%, you can do that, and you'll probably create an administrative system that costs substantially more than giving the top n% free prescriptions. So you can have that hard working mechanic pay more to make sure that Al and Warren don't get free prescription drugs.>>> Gee, why don't we just issue everyone a welfare check, social security (at the same rate), medicaid, and medicare, because, it's too administratively costly to figure out REAL NEED from NON NEED! That has to be THE most idiotic things I've ever seen a Dashle supporter come up with. And there have been some real doozies. I've got to save this one for future reference. LOL Gotta go, thanks for the laughs today.