IN THE NEWS

Editorial

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

STOP JUGGLING THE FIGURES

February 8, 2005

Fiscal responsibility is apparently a quaint and obsolete concept in Washington, D.C., and the Bush administration seems at ease employing mathematical hocus-pocus in its deficit-trimming projection.

President Bush's $2.57 trillion budget does set a course for slashing the red ink in half by 2009, a promise he and his economic team have repeatedly made.

The nation could feel good about that pledge if not for accounting tricks. For starters, the administration is dubiously using last year's projected deficit of $521 billion as the benchmark for reduction.

Problem is, the actual deficit for 2004 was $412 billion. The lower number is encouraging, but it should be the starting point instead of the higher estimate, which makes deficit reduction slicing efforts seem more successful than they might be.

Worse, the budget does not include some big-ticket spending for war and retirement plans. It leaves out significant domestic line item expenses related to Social Security. Much of the costs for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are omitted, too.

Those details are the devils in the supplemental budgets, meaning later, additional pleading for money from Congress. Supplemental budgets? How many ordinary individuals and companies can get away with such sleight of hand?

Americans might want their government to be run like a business, but Enron Corp.-like shenanigans are not what many had in mind.

Sadly, the administration isn't fooling anyone with these games. Especially not overseas financiers who have been driving down the value of the dollar in part because of their concerns about America's budget and current account deficits.

While many outside the White House and Treasury recognize the red ink is a problem, the administration performs mathematical acrobatics. The premise of the budget promise -- settling for half of last year's deficit forecast -- is an especially unsatisfying goal considering the country was on a pace for trillions in budget surpluses before President Bush and the Congress went on tax-cutting and spending sprees.

President Bush prides himself on being a straight shooter. The only thing this budget proposal shoots is hot air. The administration owes the people an honest assessment of the deficit legacy it will leave for its successor.