NYT EDITORIAL: What They're Not Telling You (about the deficit)

[Elmore Furth]

The New York Times thinks someone is going to have to spit it outand say what the Republicans won't: there is no way to fix the nation’s fiscal crisis without higher taxes now and in the future — and cuts in entitlement programs down the road."

Oh damn. I thought the Wizard at the end of the Yellow Brick Road was going to grant me my wishes.

Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Money and Politics in the Land of Oz

Off to See the Wizard

There is a lot of heated talk in Washington these days about the deficit, unfortunately little of it serious. Playing on Americans’ deep anxiety about the economy, Republican politicians have seized the deficit issue as their own — eagerly blaming the stimulus and even an extension of unemployment insurance for the problem — while denying their own culpability for helping dig this deep hole with years of irresponsible tax cuts. Much of the deterioration (in the deficit) resulted from huge Bush-era tax cuts, which left the nation chronically short of revenue, especially when it had to pay for two wars.

Under current projections, that (balancing the budget) would require cutting the deficit to about 3 percent of gross domestic product from 10 percent today. When he established a bipartisan deficit commission, Mr. Obama called for reaching such a goal by 2015. Given today’s weak economy, that is probably too rapid. The aim is sound, even if it takes closer to a decade to get there.

Once the economy recovers, more savings may be possible. But there is not as much fat there as the politicians may claim. In recent years, spending in most of these categories (nondefense spending) has been flat or barely rising.

There is no way to deal with the deficit without also raising taxes. As the economy improves, tax revenues could rise to $3.6 trillion in 2015 and $4.6 trillion in 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office, compared with $2.2 trillion this year.

What They’re Not Telling You