Looks like I have some night-time reading with Bush's final budget document. Here's Stan Collender:

Bush Midsession Budget: Absolute Silliness | Capital Gains and Games

There is also absolutely no indication that the White House understands in any way that this year's deficit is not just the result of things that have happened the past few months,. Nussle's statement indicates that had it not been for the need to deal with the economic slowdown, all would be well in the budget world.

That's just plain silly. The policies put in place in the first seven years of the Bush administration -- with the president's full and active support, encouragement, and insistence -- have more to do with the current fiscal situation than anything that has happened since this past January. There are many, but the most important are:

* The tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003
* The more than $500 billion spent on activities in Iraq and Afghanistan
* Medicare Part D
* The big increases in the national debt and corresponding increases in annual interest payments

All of these dwarf the amount that will be spent in the "bipartisan growth package."

The silliness continued...

2009 Midsession review | Posted August 5, 2008 06:21 PM by John Irons