federal deficit à la carte[excerpt:]
Some commentators blame recent legislation--the stimulus bill and the financial rescues--for today’s record deficits. Yet those costs pale next to other policies enacted since 2001 that have swollen the deficit....
Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration--tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for almost $7 trillion in deficits in 2009 through 2019, including the associated debt-service costs. These impacts easily dwarf the stimulus and financial rescues. Furthermore, unlike those temporary costs, these inherited policies (especially the tax cuts and the prescription drug benefit enacted in 2003) do not fade away as the economy recovers (see Figure 1).
Some commentators blame recent legislation--the stimulus bill and the financial rescues--for today’s record deficits. Yet those costs pale next to other policies enacted since 2001 that have swollen the deficit....
Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration--tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for almost $7 trillion in deficits in 2009 through 2019, including the associated debt-service costs. These impacts easily dwarf the stimulus and financial rescues. Furthermore, unlike those temporary costs, these inherited policies (especially the tax cuts and the prescription drug benefit enacted in 2003) do not fade away as the economy recovers (see Figure 1).
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