Who Ate All the Pie?
President Bush's budget is full of hard choices, what with all the spending and program cuts within it. But those cuts might not amount to a hill of beans as it seems a large portion of the non-Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid spending is coming from the after-effects of Bush's tax cuts. This via the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (as well as Mother Jones' Mojo blog):

The new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data show that changes in law enacted since January 2001 increased the deficit by $539 billion in 2005.  In the absence of such legislation, the nation would have a surplus this year.  Tax cuts account for nearly  half — 48 percent — of this $539 billion in increased costs.  Increases in program spending make up the other 52 percent and have been primarily concentrated in defense, homeland security, and international affairs.

The Administration has repeatedly defended its tax cuts as a needed stimulus during the recent economic downturn.  But the downturn is behind us, and the cost of the tax cuts is scheduled to increase in the years ahead.  Indeed, some of the tax cuts enacted in 2001 that benefit only high-income households have not even started to take effect yet.  The repeal of the “personal exemption phase-out” for high-income taxpayers, as well as repeal of the limitation on itemized deductions for high-income taxpayers, do not start to phase in until 2006 and do not take full effect until 2010.  Estate tax repeal also does not take effect until 2010.

A growing number of studies from highly respected institutions and economists have concluded that the negative effect on long-term growth of the increased deficits that the tax cuts are generating is likely to cancel out — and quite possibly to outweigh — any positive effects on long-term growth from reductions in marginal tax rates and other tax incentives in the 2001 and 2003 tax-cut packages.  Stated simply, the tax cuts are more likely to reduce long-term growth than to increase it.

And here it is, in loud, proud day-glo colors: