PRESTOPUNDIT -- A Good Blog at a Great Price. Guaranteed.

Brad DeLong

1. The Bush budget number for 2009 omits about $160 billion in costs for programs that the administration wants enacted.

2. The Bush budget limits itself to five years--to 2009--rather than the ten years of Clinton budgets because the Bush administration doesn't want journalists to pay attention to the effects of its policies in 2010-2014, and thinks that the press is so gullible and lazy that if it doesn't report 2010-2014 effects the press won't write about them.

3. Extending the Bush tax cuts would blow an annual $250 billion hole in the budget in the 2009-2012 presidential term.

4. $400 billion in 2009 and $700 billion by 2014 are better forecasts of the deficit that would be produced by the policies the Bush administration advocates.

5. Long-run budget projections show clearly that the [federal] budget is on an unsustainable path.