Bush Celebrates Fourth Largest Deficit In History

Today, the Office of Management Budget projected a $296 billion federal deficit for fiscal year 2006. Bush held a press conference arguing that this is a vindication of his economic policies.

Actually, it would be the fourth largest deficit of all time. Here’s the top five:

1. 2004 (George W. Bush) $413 billion
2. 2003 (George W. Bush) $378 billion
3. 2005 (George W. Bush) $318 billion
4. 2006 (George W. Bush) $296 billion (projected)
5. 1992 (Geroge H. W. Bush) $290 billion

When President Bush came into office, he inherited a surplus of $284 Billion. At that time, the Bush administration predicted a $516 billion surplus for 2006.

The fact that Bush now considers a $296 billion deficit an occasion to celebrate shows how far we’ve fallen.

Of course this $296 billion number is complete bunk. The unified budget deficit was projected by the CBO to be $336 billion this year. Now they say it will be $296 billion.

There will be a projected $180 billion surplus in Social Security this year that they will "borrow" that doesn't count against the deficit number, meaning the CBO projected on-budget deficit is actually around $480 billion.

The supplemental request this year is around $107 billion. That pushes the real deficit to around $587 billion -- which is around what Bush and the Republicans have averaged since they got a lock on power, leading to $2.6 trillion in new debt so far. This, after we were running actual, on-budget surpluses which were reducing the debt.

And Bush is proud of this???

What a fool.