Analysis Of The President's Budget

Publication Date: March 2004

Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington, D.C.)

Author(s): Robert Greenstein; Richard Kogan

Research Area: Banking and finance

Keywords: Federal budget; National debt; Fiscal future; Economic projections

Type: Report

Abstract:

The nation faces increasingly serious budget problems. Rather than address them, however, the President’s budget would make the problems worse. The net result of the President’s proposals would be to make deficits considerably larger than they would be without the proposals, further risking the long-term health of the economy and saddling future generations with even greater amounts of debt.

The proposals in the budget that seek to contain deficits are limited in scope and are heavily outweighed by the deficit-increasing proposals. Furthermore, the deficit-reducing proposals are disproportionately tilted against lower- and middle-income families, while giving more affluent and powerful constituents a virtual free ride.