We take back all the horrible things we’ve said about President Obama. He’s a damn miracle worker. He made the Republicans look like fools yesterday by cutting a massive $2 trillion (with a T) from future deficits.
Oh, wait. Looks like we misread the story. Turns out it was the Congressional Budget Office that made Obama look like a fool by announcing that his estimate of the deficits was off by massive $2.3 trillion.
The Hill has the details of the deficit:
The Congressional Budget Office on Friday released its analysis of President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal and found it does less to rein in deficits and the debt than the administration had estimated.
CBO estimates Obama’s plan would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion. By 2021, it would increase the debt held by the public to 87 percent of gross domestic product.
The administration, using different methods, estimated budget deficits would total $7.2 trillion over the next 10 years under the 2012 budget. It forecast that total debt in 2021 would be 77 percent of GDP.
The “different methods” include sprinkling pixie dust over the budget and flat out making crap up. Marc Goldwein of the CBO tells why:
He explained that the difference between the CBO’s $9.5 trillion estimate and OMB’s $7.2 trillion estimate comes from two sources: rosy economic growth assumptions by OMB and offsets for the Medicare doc fix as well as transportation spending OMB did not specify in the budget and which CBO will not factor in.
In other words, they overestimated the good stuff and underestimated the bad stuff.
And in other other words, they lied.
Source: The Hill
