I wish it were not so, but it is too easy to underestimate the ability of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party to spend and spend and spend…. Hence in this post, I said the following.
In 2010, Federal spending is projected to be $3.6 trillion, and the deficit will exceed $900 billion.
Wrong!
Thanks to Instapundit, I quickly discovered my error. Instapundit linked to an interesting column in the Washington Post, Obama’s Risky Debt by Robert J. Samuelson. Here is an excerpt.
Let’s see. From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that’s atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80 percent). The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82 percent.
But wait: Even these totals may be understated. By various estimates, Obama’s health plan might cost $1.2 trillion over a decade; Obama has budgeted only $635 billion. Next, the huge deficits occur despite a pronounced squeeze of defense spending. From 2008 to 2019, total federal spending would rise 75 percent, but defense spending would increase only 17 percent. Unless foreign threats recede, military spending and deficits might both grow.
The article provides a link to its source material, The President’s Budget. Checking the the budget specifically for FY 2010, I found that the predicted deficit is $1,270 billion.
I suggest reading the rest of Samuelson’s column. Samuelson cannot believe the huge debt projections. He is astonished by the lack of attention. Once you look at the numbers, it is not hard to see why.
