IF YOU'RE DISCIPLINED YOU CAN WIN A WORLD WAR WITHOUT REAGANESQUE DEFICITS:

Brighter ’06 Deficit Outlook, but Long Term Looks Grim (EDMUND L. ANDREWS, 8/18/06, NY Times)

The federal budget deficit will shrink this year to its lowest level since 2001, but the fiscal outlook for the next 10 years is as bleak as ever, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.

The budget office estimated the deficit for the 2006 fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, at $260 billion. That would be $58 billion less than last year, $112 billion less than the agency estimated in March and even lower than the White House’s most recent forecast.

The improvement is almost entirely a result of an unexpectedly big jump in tax revenue, particularly in corporate tax receipts and what appear to be higher payments by the nation’s wealthiest households.

Measured as a share of the nation’s total output, this year’s deficit would equal about 2 percent of gross domestic product, a level that Donald B. Marron, acting director of the budget office, described as “sustainable.”

Unexpected? Hasn't the president been saying since '99 that tax cuts would fuel higher growth and revenue? Meanwhile, cut the 2%+ of GDP he's added for defense and the budget is balanced (though neither we nor the global economy could afford that eventuality).

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 18, 2006 9:38 AM