The Century foundation has just released a report entitled "How the Federal Budget Forecast Went From $5 Trillion in the Black to $5 Trillion in the Red In Just Two and a Half Years," by Bernard Wasow.

The report shows how we went from record surpluses to massive deficits.
 

According to the President's State of the Union speech, the current administration claims it will "cut the deficit in half over the next five years."

This is a shift from just 6 months ago when the administration was claiming that "the budget deficit is expected to be cut by more than half by 2006."

In fact, administration policies are unlikely to cut the deficit in half EVER.

OMB Watch - The Watcher - January 12, 2003 Vol.5 No.1 -

FEDERAL BUDGET --------------

*Needs UP, Services DOWN

*Economy and Jobs Watch: Unemployment Down, No New Jobs

*Economy and Jobs Watch: Long-term Budget Choices

There was an interesting commentary in the Washington Post by Richard Cohen which followed up on the comments made last October by conservative Grover Norquist.

"...among other things, Norquist compared the estate tax to the Holocaust."

"...This is unbridled selfishness in the guise of ideology and makes wealth the moral equivalent of ethnicity or religion or even sexual preference. To Norquist, distinguishing between rich and poor is like making a selection at Auschwitz. It not only trivializes the Holocaust, it collapses all moral distinctions."