How to hide $44 trillion. Shove bad news under a rug at the White House, but first fire the messenger (MSNBC):
WASHINGTON, May 29 — The Bush administration has shelved a report commissioned by the Treasury that shows the U.S. currently faces a future of chronic federal budget deficits totaling at least $44 trillion in current U.S. dollars.
The study, the most comprehensive assessment of how the U.S. government is at risk of being overwhelmed by the “baby boom” generation’s future healthcare and retirement costs, was commissioned by then-Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill.
But the Bush administration chose to keep the findings out of the annual budget report for fiscal year 2004, published in February, as the White House campaigned for a tax-cut package that critics claim will expand future deficits.
The study asserts that sharp tax increases, massive spending cuts or a painful mix of both are unavoidable if the U.S. is to meet benefit promises to future generations. It estimates that closing the gap would require the equivalent of an immediate and permanent 66 percent across-the-board income tax increase.
The study was being circulated as an independent working paper among Washington think-tanks as President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a 10-year, $350 billion tax-cut package he welcomed as a victory for hard-working Americans and the economy.
The wealthiest 20% of Americans will receive 79.3% of this year's tax cut. Only "hard-working Americans," by the design of the Bush cabal, will finance the military ambitions of sons of millionaires whose dividend and inheritance income will remain untaxed and free to grow forever.
In a sane world, this — and not lying about a blow job — would be an impeachable offense.
