"Deficits are too high ~ It's time to be responsible" Don Nickles

I think it is way past time to be responsible if you ask me but what do I know, I balance my checkbook:shrug:

As the Senate began its budget debate, Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles, R-Okla., said his plan would help cut deficits in half in three years by clamping down on some spending.
"Deficits are far too high," he said, referring to this year's projected shortfall of about a half-trillion dollars. "It's time to be responsible."
But North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad, the top Democrat on the budget panel, said the plans by Bush and the Senate GOP hid the real danger – the long-range deficits that loom as baby boomers begin to retire.
Bush's policies "are truly dangerous to the economic security of our country," Conrad said. "We have a responsibility to alter that course."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040308-1516-taxcuts-deficit.html

I balance my checkbook every month too - and limit my debt - and I'm one of those wild-eyed lib'rals!

Go figure.

sight that doesn't help the rich or corporations.

Chimpy's redefeat campaign, then they will have the excuse that there really is no money...

Go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2005/tables.html and
scroll down to a table that reads Table S-17

Table S17. Federal Government Financing and Debt
(Dollar amounts in billions)Down in this area there's a chart called

Change in Debt Subject to Statutory Limitation which reads

Change in debt held by the public = 507
Change in debt held by Government accounts = 219
Total, change in debt subject to statutory limitation = 727 Billion

The half-trillion figure used by Nickles and most of the press is the bogus "unified budget" figure. This chart shows some $219 Billion, probably SS monies, is being used to disguise the true extent of Bush's disastrous deficits. Since these funds have to be repaid... it is dishonest to pretend they are revenues. According to OMB the
projected FY04 deficit $727 BILLION.

Why is now the time to be Responsible and not say in 2001? So they have been totally irresponsible and the deficit has soared and soared and now it is election time and D'oh "It is time to be Responsible"

My comment just reflects general frustration that BOTH parties are guilty of using the misleading unified budget numbers. It SHOULD be a no-brainer that Democrats use the REAL "on budget" numbers since they make Bush look even MORE dangerous and irresponsible. But I suspect that they are old hands at this game and are uncomfortable confronting their own past attempts to mislead the public.