> Politicus E [suggesting skepticism that Obama’s budget is an austerity
> budget]: “…the on-budget deficit will be 14.1% of GDP in 2009,
> 10.4% in 2010, 7.3% in 2011, and about 5% by the time of the next
> presidential election.”
>
> 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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>
Personally, I think that the US are digging themselves into a hole. And I don't think this is being in any way "simplistic". They've got a massive gap in their "bill" and they're wiling to make any excuse to temporally fill it. They pump money out of the very places that they owe it... this, to me, is a sign of serious crisis.
"Spend", "Save"... lovely; but I see little to spend OR save. The US got away with this maneuver in the early 70's... and for very specific reasons. But that's not happening today.