Washington, D.C. – Statement by Keith Ashdown, Communications Director at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the Dwindling Federal Budget Surplus:
As the fall congressional spending frenzy nears, sky-high budget surpluses have all but evaporated. The era of budget surpluses is over.
According to Congressional Budget Office numbers to be released Tuesday morning, the non-Social Security budget surplus has turned into a $9 billion deficit for this year, while the off-budget surplus will be around $162 billion. As of April of this year, the non-Social Security surplus was more than $120 billion.
Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for this budgetary debacle. Rather than practice sound fiscal discipline, both parties would rather play a high stakes game of budgetary chicken. Members from both parties continue to break the bank with outrageous spending proposals while they blame each other for Washington’s out-of-control spending. It is the ultimate passing of the buck… and those bucks belong to taxpayers.
Given the trend, it is likely that this year’s budget deficit will balloon even more. The only way the Bush Administration will be able to control congressional spending will be to start vetoing Appropriations bills. While the Administration has had strong rhetoric regarding congressional spending, they risk further straining congressional relations if they start vetoing bills.
With budget deficits looming on the horizon, the Pentagon and other Washington special interests will be singing the budgetary blues. These new numbers will cast a long shadow over the Administration’s request for $18 billion in new defense spending and its multibillion-dollar plan for a national missile defense system.
It also puts the $38 billion in subsidies to big energy on life support. It’s going to be a hard sell to the American taxpayer to spend even more money subsidizing profitable industries when other popular programs start feeling the fiscal squeeze.
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