$500 Billions To Be Added To Debt This Year

A new round of tax cuts, coupled with a continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq, will push the federal budget deficit to nearly $500 billion next year and could help drive up the federal debt by $3.6 trillion through 2011, according to new forecasts by House Budget Committee Democrats.

The numbers, while compiled by partisan staff members, are in line with private sector estimates from Wall Street. They also reflect deteriorating fiscal conditions noted early this month by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, well before the tax cut was signed into law.

"Those are all sensible numbers," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, CBO's director and a former Bush administration economist.

I had said back last year Bush could break $500 billion. he has no sense of fiscal responsiblity. Still compared to $44 trillion in unfunded liabilities he is building up...