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Hiding $1.3+ Trillion from the Budget
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
2/20/2006 |
Through sleight of hand, the Administration's budget does not show the cost of making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent. Rather, it assumes they will not end in 2010 and puts them into the base. This hides over $1.3 trillion in costs. It is deceptive and Congress should be open about what it costs.
I read an excellent editorial by David Broder in the Washington Post on Sunday, January 19. He tracked down how the Bush Administration is assuming that the Congress will make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent and therefore does not include over the $1.35 trillion cost in the budget's cost estimates. This means they can assume these costs are part of the base. This is the kind of insider, sleight of hand maneuver that makes the public justifiably angry about business as usual in Washington, D.C.
Why isn't Congress standing up and demanding honest and accountable budgeting? Is it because asking questions of the Administration might precipitate attacks on them, or isolate them from the loyal, yes-men, or mean that special goodies will be cut off from those Congressmen or their districts.
Is this any way to run a republic? Where is Congress's backbone?
The explanation Broder got from the Administration's Office of Management & Budget led him through a maze of intricacies in the budget documents before he got an answer. Are members of Congress asking the same questions? How about a little accountability for the ordinary taxpayer they are supposed to represent?
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