White House pushes deficit to trillions

by Tim Wheeler

Just a week after bragging in his State of the Union speech that 
the economy is on the mend, George W Bush faced angry charges 
that his policies have pushed working people deeper in debt to 
enrich the wealthy elite.

The Fair Taxes for All Coalition (FTFA) released a scathing 
statement January 26 citing a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) 
report that the federal deficit will reach an all-time record 
US$477 billion this year. Over the coming decade, the CBO 
projected the deficit mushrooming to US$2.4 trillion, a trillion 
dollars higher than the nonpartisan agency projected last August.

The new deficit projections "show that President Bush's tax cuts 
are harming American families now and into the future", the FTFA 
charged. Bush's US$2 trillion in tax cuts, approved by the 
Republican-majority Congress, "has not improved the standard of 
living of average Americans or created new good jobs", it 
continued.

Referring to Bush's call in the State of the Union to make those 
tax cuts permanent, the FTFA added, "The administration continues 
to push reckless proposals that divert even more money from 
health care, education, and Social Security to give more tax 
breaks to millionaires.  As today's CBO numbers confirm, the Bush 
administration is imposing trillions of dollars in debt on 
current and future taxpayers." 

The FTFA unites 325 organisations, such as People for the 
American Way, National Women's Law Center, AFSCME, the Leadership 
Conference on Civil Rights, USAction, and the Campaign for 
America's Future.

It said "millions of Americans (have) pledged to defeat Bush 
administration tax proposals. The time has come to reform the tax 
system to insure that everyone pays their fair share and to 
provide adequate revenue to assure a world class education for 
our children, quality health care, retirement security, and 
economic opportunity."

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People's Weekly World abridged. For full text visit 
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