So many promises Partial Social

So many promises

Partial Social Security privatization, extension of the first term tax cuts, revenue neutral tax simplification, cutting the deficit in half by 2009, more spending for education, no cuts to defense and national security spending...he can't do it all. Jonathan Weisman reports in Friday's Washington Post:"Analysts Call Outlook for Bush Plan Bleak"

"President Bush signaled yesterday that he would add personal investment accounts to the Social Security system, simplify the tax code without raising taxes and cut the budget deficit in half, all before he leaves office in 2009.

Ambitious as those promises are, they may be mathematically impossible, budget and policy analysts say..."

Defining the baseline carefully can help:

"Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the White House budget office, said the president can and will cut the deficit in half by 2009. But, he said, the deficit in 2009 would be half what the White House first projected it to be for 2004: $521 billion. That projection, made in January, proved to be inflated by $108 billion, in part because faster economic growth produced $82 billion in additional tax revenue and in part because spending was $27 billion less than anticipated.

But Kolton said that pledge never included the cost of Social Security reform, nor will the 2006 budget that Bush will unveil in early February."