Deficit
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| Mon, 08-09-2004 - 7:55am |
DEFICIT – DEBT SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS: With the Bush administration forecasting a record $639 billion budget deficit in 2003-04, BBC reports, "US Treasury Secretary John Snow has urged Congress to raise the government's debt ceiling, or face a cash crunch in the autumn. He warned that Washington was on track to breach the current limit of $7.4 trillion in late September." The U.S. national debt - the sum of previous annual budget deficits - currently stands at nearly $7.3 trillion and the ceiling has already been raised twice since Bush took office in 2000. The administration likes to blame the fight against terrorism and the war in Iraq for the deficits, but the Boston Globe points out $290 billion of the current deficit is directly attributable to the Bush tax cuts. "Just 3 1/2 years ago, the Office of Management and Budget was projecting a surplus of $387 billion for the 2004 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30."
