$389 billion deficit this year; $482 billion next
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$389,000,000,000.00 + $482,000,000,000.00
That’s how much we have to finance as a nation over the next two years.
That’s how much the country has to borrow in order to pay its bills.
Add that’s adding to an already colossal national debt of $9,546,918,990,905.40 (as calculated by the on-line national debt clock as of 6:30 a.m.).
As you can see, we have a bit of a spending problem.
Regarding this news, Sen. John McCain, presumptive Republican nominee for president said, “There is no more striking reminder of the need to reverse the profligate spending that has characterized this administration’s fiscal policy.”
However, despite the difficult position this puts budget-makers, McCain still pledges to balance the budget by the end of his first term.
“[The announcement of the deficit] makes that job harder, but should not change our resolve to make the tough decisions and the genuine effort to reach across the aisle that are needed to ensure a lasting solution to the spending problem that threatens the very stability of our economy,” said McCain. “Senator Obama will not commit to balancing our budget, does not propose to control spending, and has only one answer to every challenge: raise taxes. His plan is to increase tax rates on investment, income, and above all on the small businesses that drive our economic growth and create jobs. It is a plan that will not work for American workers. It will not work to solve the budget mess — his taxes would not raise enough over the next decade to cover his spending proposals, let alone make a dent in the budget deficit.”
The announcement of the deficit is due to less than expected government revenues. It also does not account for upwards of $80 billion in funding for the war and the housing bailout package passed last week.
The good news is that, as a percentage of GDP, it’s not the largest deficit we’ve had. Isn’t that a bit like being an alcoholic and saying the ten beers you drank today is better than the twelve you drank yesterday?
on 
The answer for a balanced budget is likely something that neither candidate wants to hear or has the will to do. Increased taxes and decreased spending. But since when has there been a “tax and cut” candidate?
Unless thats what McCain’s one-term insinuation really means - he’ll hammer through the politically suicidal tasks that need to be done to right our nations finances, and be voted out by the left for cuts and the right for taxes. Somehow i doubt thats his agenda.
It would be nice for once to see a candidate listen to his economic advisers instead of seeing those advisers contort in the wind to justify their candidates politics. Witness the remarkable transformation of Holtz-Eagan into a supply-sider.
I’m still waiting to see what happens to Goolsbee and Volker.
Correction - that Holtz-Eakin. remembered the name, not the spelling :).
We will be forever in Mr. Bush’s debt…
What is truly amazing is how Bush and Congress took a $286,000,000,000 surplus in the last year of the Clinton administration and ran up over $4,000,000,000,000 of debt in just seven years. I really wonder where our nation will be in a few years, and whether our currency will have any value.
Bush has basically ruined the party. He promised a balanced budget by 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and know 2016. What a disgrace. Its going to take years to rebrand the party.