Bush's New Worries for the Economy
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6831011/site/newsweek/
The outlook for his second term is brighter than his first. Still,
there are plenty of concerns, including that big deficit and naming a
successor to Greenspan.
By Robert J. Samuelson
Newsweek
Jan. 24 issue - Everyone is going to play numbers games to judge George
W. Bush's next economic policies. Top of the list will be Bush's pledge
to cut the budget deficit in half by 2009. Although this promise seems
simple, it isn't. Let's see. Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of
Management and Budget, says the pledge was made a year ago, when the
projected deficit for 2004 was $521 billion, or 4.5 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP). Thus, the administration's targets for 2009 are
$260 billion, or 2.2 percent of GDP. But wait: the actual deficit for
2004 was $413 billion (3.6 percent of GDP). Should Bush be aiming at
half of that? Then there's Social Security. If Bush proposes borrowing
to pay for "personal accounts," will those amounts be added to the
deficits? They should, but in Washington, who knows?
Robert J. Samuelson
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