Bush's last spending plan only adds to a disastrous fiscal legacy

February 5, 2008
Bush's last spending plan only adds to a disastrous fiscal legacy

The president proposed to pay down the debt by $2 trillion during that time, which, he said, was as much as could be responsibly redeemed. He offered lavish tax cuts. And he vowed to "confront great challenges from which Government has too long flinched," putting Social Security and Medicare on solid financial footing.

But the fact remains that the purported surplus on which Mr. Bush based his tax-cutting agenda
was always something of a mirage, and the president has never been willing to adjust his agenda to
the grim new fiscal reality. Yesterday's promise of a small surplus by 2012 is once again premised
on omitting likely costs (zero is budgeted for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) and by assuming
cuts to domestic spending that are unachievable politically and, in large part, unwise as a matter
of policy.