President Bush’s proposed budget fudges the math in several areas in order to appear to be austere. His pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009 does not use this year’s record deficit as a bench mark but rather a ficitious $521 billion implying a goal of $260.5 billion. These calculations also omit the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan operations as well as any ‘transition costs’ for a revised social security plan. According to one analyst the Bush budget cuts equal about 6% of the budget deficit, while the tax cuts are equal to about 50% of the budget deficit.
Even these proposed cuts may be hard to deliver. "With the deficits that we're now running, I'm glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on ABC's "This Week." "I hope we in Congress will have the courage to support it."
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