Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a publication, Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget Request for 2009, that showed some key differences with the administration regarding budget deficit projections. If enacted, the report indicates, the president's budget would:

• produce growing deficits of $396 billion in 2008 and $342 billion in 2009, 2.8 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, of gross domestic product (GDP). By comparison, the deficit in 2007 totaled 1.2 percent of GDP

PGL at Angry Bear flags this Dean Baker post in which Baker notes that We will almost certainly end the Bush years with a higher debt to GDP ratio than we had at the start of the Clinton presidency. That is not a disaster, but the next administration will not have the luxury of allowing the debt to increase in the same way. PGL includes a version of this chart and comments: (click on image to enlarge)

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities continues to churn out updates to their analysis first released in January detailing the increasingly poor state of state budgets around the country, and things are not getting better. The most recent update adds one more state (Oklahoma) to the list of states facing a budget crunch in 2009. Now there are 21 states that are projecting budget gaps in 2009. The updated summary stats from CBPP: More than half of states anticipate budget problems, according to this updated analysis of state fiscal conditions.

• 21 states now project budget gaps for 2009. Oklahoma joins this list.
• The combined budget shortfall for these 21 states is now at least $36 billion due to changes in the estimates for California and Illinois, and the addition of an estimate for Oklahoma.
• 4 states say they will have 2009 deficits, but have released no further information. Oklahoma leaves this list because it has now released an estimate.
• 3 other states project budget gaps for 2010 and beyond.

CBPP: 21 STATES FACE TOTAL BUDGET SHORTFALL OF AT LEAST $36 BILLION IN 2009

The Bush administration is pursuing or has achieved several policy goals that work to cut social support services by reducing federal funding for Medicaid programs. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released all of these policies — three proposed rules, one interim final rule, and two final rules — in the past nine months.