Sources of deficits

Without the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the budget would be roughly in balance. So says the non-partisan Center on Budget Policies and Priorities in a report out yesterday.

Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration — tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for $7 trillion in deficits in 2009 through 2019, including the associated debt-service costs. [7] By 2019, we estimate that these two policies will account for almost half — nearly $10 trillion — of the $20 trillion in debt that will be owed under current policies.

In a rational world the obvious thing to do would be terminate the Bush tax cuts immediately, but we don’t live in a rational world. We live in a world where Republican leaders in Congress refuse to consider raising taxes (or eliminating tax cuts) as sound policy, but rather as something to be used as a cudgel with which to bash Democrats in political campaigns.