Treasury Secretary on This Week.....next. No, it's not ONeill; it's Snow

[buycitgo]

Stephanopoulos and Will interviewing him.

will they form a threesome, ganging up on Snow's predecessor?

will they ask him about the booming economy, and those hundreds of thousands of jobs per month being created?

will they ask him about the IMF warning about the horrendous shape of the dollar, and how its precipitous decline threatens the entire world economy?

will they ask him about the structural changes in our national debt/deficit, brought about by the tax cuts, leaving us in perpetual debt?

here we go now

[buycitgo]

1. why didn't the 500K jobs for this year predicted earlier actually occur?

Snow says recovery isn't in full bloom;

all evidence shows it's happening

He's confident that this recovery will result in new jobs.

private sector is still "sticky" with job creation.

"evidence is awful clear that we're in good, strong recovery"

[buycitgo]

2. George Will even axed him a tough one

Why, 25 months into the recovery of an eight month recession still be going so poorly?

Snow makes excuse of an economy in steep decline, homeland security, 911, blah blah blah, that it's doing MUCH better

[buycitgo]

3. Snow says fundamentals are awfully good

making tax cuts permanent is the BEST thing we can do.

Steph: IMF said these deficits are bad, and making tax cuts permanent will make deficits permanent

then he talks about ONeill saying Cheney dismissed deficits as NOT MATTERING, proved by Reagan

[buycitgo]

4. Steph is giving it to him!

Snow says admin is "committed to fiscal responsibility"

says deficit will come down to 2% of GDP!!!!!

[Grins]

5. 2%. Ain't that peachy.

Well, 2% of $10.41 trillion is $208 billion.

This past summer, the Office of Management and Budget published a mid-year budget review, which projected record federal budget deficits of $455 billion in 2003 and $475 billion in 2004, and this was before Dubya asked for $87B to go to Iraq; nor does it include the costs of legislation in waiting (Energy and Medicare). To put these figures in perspective, in 2000 (Clinton's last year) the federal budget had a $236 billion surplus!!!! The budget deficit Clinton inherited from Bush I's last year in office (1992) was was some $290 billion.

So, what Clinton and Rubin did was recoup that $290B, and sweeten it with $236B more that went against the debt (thus, shutting off the debt clock in Times Sq.) for a total of $526B.

To just equal what Rubin and Clinton did, Snow has to find a way to get to that 2% of GDP, plus pay for new the Energy and Medicare legislation, plus Iraq, plus his idiot boss's announced plan for new tax cuts - plus find another $318 Billion! Fat chance.

How ya' gonna do that when Chimpy now said he wants to go to the Mars (estimated at $400B)? Oops! Sorry I asked. Of course, it's tax cuts!