Doug H: “CBO projections are cautious in the sense that they mostly extrapolate the present into the future. There's no austerity baked in right now, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to see it evolve in the coming months.”
Well, austerity depends not only on the gross total budget, but on *what* is being funded, yes? The much-maligned Chossudovsky argued (in an earlier link on this list) that once the Pentagon and finance industry bailouts are accounted for in the Obama budget, there is simply nothing left based on any reasonable revenue projections, even allowing for the massive expected debt. So he concludes that, rhetoric aside, an austerity/de facto structural adjustment program is all there *can* be for the other more popular and more productive functions of government.
I would happily consign his simple conclusion to the "simplistic" or "simple-minded" pile if it can be rebutted; it hasn't been rebutted here, maybe because no one sees the need, and maybe for good reason. I admit I'm not enough of a federal budget expert to be able to tell if Chossudovksy's pointing out something hiding in plain sight, or is just being a crank. Anybody know?
On 3/26/09, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Mar 26, 2009, at 11:14 AM, Politicus E. wrote:
>
>
> > Hi. I am reading the CBO report on the Obama adminstration's budget
> > proposal, and find myself somewhat puzzled. On the one hand, I believe
> that
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