The $2 trillion was there all along.
The Delores Umbridge of Economics
Today’s Friday afternoon data dump announcement that the ten-year deficit is projected by the Obama administration to be $9 trillion rather than $7 trillion as it had previously said, apparently comes as a surprise to some. Those with more elephantine memories will recall, however, that back in late February and March, a very young Obama presidency had its first dust up over budget numbers with the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO predicted that the Democrats’ spendthrift ways and the economic downturn would lead to a 10-year deficit of $9.3 trillion.
Romer acted as if the CBO left an $800B dragon out of its calculations–they didn’t, but CBO’s dragon didn’t piss oil and crap gold.
Obama’s economic adviser, Christina “Rosy” Romer was trumpeted out to proclaim that the pessimists at the CBO were far too conservative (and isn’t that a bad word!) and–and this was the nauseating part–that her predictions were more accurate because she had “inside information” on how utterly fantastic the stimulus bill was going to be for the economy. Romer acted as if the CBO had left an $800 billion dragon out of its calculations–they didn’t, but CBO had neglected to create a dragon that could piss oil and crap gold.
Of course, earlier this month, such rosy projections for the stimulus were airbrushed away like a bad Bolshevik in a Kremlin photo montage. Rosy Romer happily chirped away that the stimulus magically stopped GDP decline at 1% instead of 3%. How she knows it would have gone to 3% without funding for wild horses and NEA grants for self-described “perverts” is beyond me.
But back in March, Charles Krauthammer noted Romer’s delusional tone about the economy was not only “sunny, [but] chirpy.” His sarcasm underscores the point that hindsight makes clear–Obama’s advisers were wrong about the economy and CBO was right. Romer’s Council of Economic Advisers were forecasting 3.2% growth in GDP for 2010, while the CBO and others were forecasting 50% or less growth. Less growth means less taxes collected, which means greater deficits.
Such rosy projections for the stimulus were airbrushed away like a bad Bolshevik in a Kremlin photo montage.
This is not new, nor should it come as a surprise. Obama painted too rosy a picture in order to make his spending seem less of a problem than it is. CBO told the truth and Obama lied and sent his minions out to cover for him. The same is happening now with healthcare. Obama is promising he will find a way to cut costs to pay for the $2 trillion CBO says it will cost: “Prevention will save money,” “less paperwork will save money,” “direct billing will save money,” “greedy vulture doctors are mutilating your children for money.” CBO says they have looked at it and there is no savings to be found. And yet Obama persists. All the while, telling us that someone else is lying.