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

To: bearshark who wrote (9872)	1/26/2002 2:15:28 PM
From: bearshark	Respond to of 93284

For everyone. Here is the link to the "Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001." This is the major tax bill passed in 2001. You can find the entire act at this link. thomas.loc.gov Below is a key portion of that Act's "sunset" provision. "Sunset" provisions mark the end of an act's effective life. "SEC. 901. SUNSET OF PROVISIONS OF ACT. (a) IN GENERAL- All provisions of, and amendments made by, this Act shall not apply-- (1) to taxable, plan, or limitation years beginning after December 31, 2010, or (2) in the case of title V, to estates of decedents dying, gifts made, or generation skipping transfers, after December 31, 2010."

To: bearshark who wrote (9872)	1/27/2002 7:50:21 AM
From: jttmab	Respond to of 93284

If you were present for reaganomics, or "voodoo economics" as President Bush called it, you will remember the bad-mouthing of CBO's deficit estimates by President Reagan. CBO laid out the projected deficits for everyone to see and they were proved correct. On the other hand, I wouldn't trust any president's White House projections. I was around. It mostly depends on what "topic" is the thrust of the discussion and who you're talking to at the moment. The overall budgets change at a minimum twice a year by everyone; the first one being being related to the budget submittal the second being the mid-year supplemental. They are always different, so it's rather impossible for any one to be correct throughout. If I said Reagan's budget was accurate and someone nodded yes; then I raised the issue of the national debt; then I would hear some something about the Democratic House changing Reagan's budget... These people [the leaderships within Congress and Administrations] talk a LOT, and frequently, shamelessly contradict themselves. On the other hand, I wouldn't trust any president's White House projections. The real value [and perhaps the only one] in budget projections is to see how a specific policy decision impacts the budget [within artificial economic assumptions]. And then you make policy decisions based on some long term target. Anytime the White House uses different economic assumptions than the CBO, they both take shots at what an idiot the other one is....After all, if the other assumptions were so good, why wouldn't you use them. <s> Much of this stuff is political BS rhetoric. Personnally, I'm focused on when SS withdrawals start to tap into the general operating funds roughly in 2011, sic, the Treasuries need to be redeemed. I'd prefer to be a bit fantatical about paying down the current debt rather than planning to increase the size of the debt. On the other hand, I wouldn't trust any president's White House projections. A White House is strongly motivated to get as much approved as possible while appearing to be fiscally responsible. Being overly optimistic in economic assumptions is highly desirable to achieve those objectives. In that sense I would agree with you. There was some period of year[s] that the previous Administration used the CBO economic assumptions for the Budget Office submittal, thus avoiding the traditional pissing contest over assumptions. But I don't recall how many years that was done...I'm not even sure it was more than one year. Hmmmm. You probably remember "m" accounts too. That doesn't ring a bell, perhaps I know it by a different name. I remember a category of black accounts that was quite substantial, but I can't recall how it was referred to. What's an "m" account? I enjoy these little budget trivia things where they stuff billions of dollars. jttmab