Democrats and fiscal responsibility: 2009 Budget

Ready for the $350 billion budget deficit?

Nothing to worry about! The record deficit will be erased within four years according to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad. That is, if everything goes well (such as not having to do any spending in either Iraq or Afghanistan after FY2009).

I'm afraid I'm deeply skeptical.

I'm also skeptical of this portion of the reporting on the story produced by The Washington Post:

Among the Democrats' proposals Conrad outlined:

¿ $35 billion for a second economic stimulus package that would come on top of the $168 billion bill signed by Bush last month. The new measure could pump more money into unemployment benefits, food stamps or heating assistance for low-income families. Conrad noted that Democrats have yet to decide whether a second stimulus bill is necessary.

¿ $13.4 billion in energy tax cuts and $3.5 billion in new funding for energy programs, the biggest increase in 30 years.

¿ $13 billion in education tax cuts, and an additional $5.7 billion over Bush's request for other education programs.

(The Washington Post)

I believe the first one. It's the second two that incite my skeptical streak.

Where is this $13.4 billion in energy tax cuts supposed to come from? It isn't like the Democrats to cut taxes on gasoline except when they're desperate to buy votes. I expect that it's something cheesy like giving people a tax break for buying a hybrid automobile.

Education tax cuts? What is the education tax in the first place? Again, it reads suspiciously like some type of income tax exemption aimed at the costs of education.

Expect these tax cuts to amount to nothing other than further machinations designed to make the tax system ever fairer by redistributing wealth. It's probably more appropriate to look at these "tax cuts" as selective holdovers from the Bush tax cuts that the budget plan assumes will be left to expire. Republicans have called that intention a "tax increase" by the Dems. While that isn not a sufficiently accurate description, in my opinion, that is the net effect.

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