Deficits NOTgoing to go away when the economy recovers -choices needed now

[papau]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3527570
Groups Sound Warning on Large Budget Deficits
Mon September 29, 2003 05:59 PM ET

By Tim Ahmann
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Large and mounting budget deficits represent a threat to the health of the U.S. economy that urgently requires the attention of policymakers, three watchdog groups said on Monday.
"The coming decade is likely to rank as the most fiscally irresponsible in our nation's history," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the non-partisan Concord Coalition. The coalition, along with the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the business-backed Committee for Economic Development, said that official budget projections mask the extent to which the fiscal outlook has deteriorated. While the Congressional Budget Office forecasts deficits totaling $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years, the groups projected a $5 trillion toll. They said their projection better reflected likely policies, such as the possibility recent tax cuts would be made permanent. <snip>

"If we do not reverse these trends we will produce in the next century the first generation of Americans who are less well off than their predecessors," warned CED President Charles Kolb. The government returned to deficit spending in 2002 after keeping its accounts in surplus for four straight years and analysts say it is on course for a record short-fall in the current budget year, which closes at month's end. <snip>

Administration officials maintain they can cut the annual deficit in half in four to five years by restraining spending growth as a stronger economy generates more revenue. The budget groups, however, disabused that notion. "We're not talking about something that's going to go away when the economy recovers," Bixby said. "Hard choices are going to have to be made on tax and spending policies."