CBO analysts shows several things to be true: 1) for all the talk of transparency and reform, Obama’s budget numbers are phony and based on risible economic assumptions; 2) previous administrations have been wasteful, but the current administration is full of wastrels; and 3) there’s a reason why even committed European social democrats think the president’s fiscal plans are irresponsible.
Anyone can just look at the graph and see that it’s fiscal insanity. Unless, of course, you’re equally insane.
In the years after 2012-13, that graph looked the same during the Bush II and prior administrations. Unless and until some President and Congress restructure Medicare and Social Security costs and commitments to be more manageable under the coming wave of Baby Boomer retirements, the deficit is going to go asymptotic post 2012-13. It’s the dominant structural problem in the federal budget and it’s driven by demographics, not liberal versus conservative fiscal policies.
But whether we needed to spend something approaching $2 trillion in 2009 to turn around the economy is another question…
Unless one understands that these budgets are a feature, not a bug. Then they are not insane at all.