NYT: Hurricane's Toll Is Likely to Reshape Bush's Economic Agenda

[DeepModem Mom]

Hurricane's Toll Is Likely to Reshape Bush's Economic Agenda
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: September 7, 2005


WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - Hurricane Katrina is about to blow a hole in the federal budget, and it is already jeopardizing President Bush's agenda for cutting taxes and reducing the deficit.

Administration officials told Republican lawmakers on Tuesday that relief efforts were running close to $700 million a day, and that the total federal cost could reach as high as $100 billion.

That would be many times the cost of any other natural disaster or even the $21 billion that was allocated for New York City after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The expenses would come just as Mr. Bush and Republican leaders are trying to push through spending cuts for programs like Medicaid and student loans, extend about $70 billion in expiring tax cuts, and reduce the federal budget deficit....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07deficit.html

[kenny blankenship]

1. I predict a 180 degree turn...

It will mark a new era: Bush will stun the world by calling for income tax cuts disproportionately benefitting the top 1%, capital gains tax slashes, inheritance tax elimination and an end to Federal corporate income taxes.

[me b zola]

2. I hope it reshapes his entire future

I see him seeking refuge in a foreign land.


MURDERER!!!!!!!!!!! :grr:

[FloridaPat]

3. How can it blow a hole in the budget? The budget is nothing but IOU's.

Let's see - $100 billion would be about 2 years in Iraq. But shouldn't there be some insurance money in here somewhere? Oh look - most of the money can be retrieved with expiring tax cuts?

[NNN0LHI]

4. Deficit Picture Get Cloudier as Disaster Price Tag Balloons

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBHBHDMBDE.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Cost estimates for relief and recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina are running as high as $150 billion, making it clear that a federal budget deficit picture that only weeks ago seemed to be brightening has now gotten considerably worse.

In July, with great fanfare, the White House announced a $94 billion improvement in the deficit outlook for the current budget year and promised that President Bush would easily fulfill his pledge to cut last's year's record deficit in half by the time he leaves office.

The White House budget office in July was predicting that the deficit for the budget year ending Sept. 30 would drop to $333 billion, $79 billion below last year's record, and that next year's deficit would be $341 billion. Now, both figures are rising fast as the government spends about $2 billion a day on the Katrina relief effort, all of which adds directly to the deficit.

At this point, the government is spending whatever it takes. Even the most severe spending hawks say there is no other course.

[Jim__]

5. Maybe they'll just use poppy's trick

When the cost of the S&L bailout got too high, Poppy just declared that it would be "off-budget".