CAGW Sets the Record Straight on the Budget Deficit

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today released its third in a series of Reality Checks to slice through the rhetoric of the Democratic and Republican Party Conventions. 

Myth #1:   The federal budget deficit is the result of uncontrollable circumstances.  From the Republican Party Platform:  “These deficits are due to a number of circumstances: the stock market downturn . . . the terrorist attacks on America and the necessary spending for homeland security and the War on Terror . . . and the crisis in confidence produced by corporate scandals . . . It is important to view the size of the deficit in relation to the size of the nation’s economy.  By that measure, today’s deficit . . . is well within historical range.”

Reality Check:  The budget deficit of $422 billion projected for fiscal 2004 is the largest in history and a 12.8 percent increase from fiscal 2003.  The ploy of measuring the deficit as a percentage of GDP evades the larger truth that there has been virtually no effort to control spending.  Unlike previous wars, when Congress cut domestic spending by as much as 25 percent to finance national security, non-defense discretionary spending is up 24 percent over the last three years.  Shamefully, nearly every program expansion or expenditure is being passed off as essential to winning the War on Terror.  The Farm “Security” Act of 2002, $22.9 billion in congressional pork, the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and a program to subsidize down payments for low-income homebuyers have all been deemed part of or connected rhetorically to protecting the homeland.  Out-of-control spending is a significant reason for the record budget deficit.   

Myth #2: The deficit is manageable because it is heading in the right direction.  From the Republican Party Platform:   “ . . . the last four years have created an unwelcome but manageable budget deficit . . . (The deficit) is also in line with what other industrialized nations are facing today . . . We applaud the efforts of President Bush and the Republicans in Congress to meet our nation’s priorities and cut the deficit by more than half within five years.”

Reality Check:  Deficits do not get “managed” and they do not get “cut.”  Each year’s deficit gets added to the $7.4 trillion national debt.  Interest payments of $320 billion on the national debt are the third largest expense of the federal government.  The fact that the deficit in five years would be half as large as the deficit today does nothing to erase the deficits in between nor does it lessen the debilitating debt left to future generations.  Also, the party platform cites deficits in France and Japan for budgetary reassurance.  France is capsizing under the weight of its socialistic welfare state and Japan is mired in a decade-long recession.  The United States has never emulated other countries to achieve its unequaled prosperity and it shouldn’t start now.     

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.