Shifting Goalposts
Up on the White House website now:
The President’s FY2008 Budget reduces the deficit each year and reaches a balanced budget within five years.
Indeed, the President’s Budget pays down the debt so aggressively that it runs into an unusual problem—its annual surpluses begin to outstrip the amount of maturing debt starting in 2007.
If GW was still president by then, in 2012 we’d be told: “The President’s Budget will reduce the rate of growth of the National Debt to under 100% a year by 2017” and the indignant 30% would insist that the statement itself was some sort of a victory. They’d point to problems such as the accidental destruction of two thirds of Kansas, the difficulties associated with the ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Holland, Peru and Fiji, as well as the recessions of 2008 and 2010-2011 to explain that things were actually going as smoothly as could be expected. In fact, after the 14th round of tax cuts, and a thirty percent increase in the money supply orchestrated by the no-longer-independent Federal Reserve, things would be humming smoothly.