The Budget

The Bush administration is now facing the results to their overspending of government money. The national deficit is higher then ever before, and President Bush is working on plans to improve deficit spending and to make the tax payer dollar go as far as possible. The major issues on the table are the war in Iraq, social security, and the AMT.

The President says that he will he provide the resources to his vision of the Iraqi war while the White House does not have a plan for funding. The cost of America’s programs is too much to handle with the current budget. President Bush plans to present the budget of $2.5 trillion to congress, but will try to avoid the costs that are associated with the war. The war with Iraq is not included into the budget and it requests $80 billion.

President Bush’s top domestic priority of social security is also requesting more funding from $1 trillion to $2 trillion over the next 10 years. Along with social security is the AMT which is a tax system which imposes higher tax to 3 million middle class families. This problem increases when inflation occurs and family income rises and 30 million could be paying the AMT by 2010. The plan to fix this problem will cost about $500 billion during a 10 year span.

President Bush has good plans for improvement, however the plans may turn out to do more harm than good to America. If the costs of Iraq, social security, AMT relief, and permanent tax cuts continue to rise, then the projected deficit will be closer to $400 billion than the planned $250 billion by year 2009. These big ticket items could add a resulting $3 trillion more to the national debt. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2005/nf2005023_2151_db045.htm