Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Bayesian updating of deficit causes 

My debate with Phil over the sources of the deficit and whether Bush is a big spender get some new data in this one-pager from the Joint Economic Committee. 39% of the ten-year deficit going forward is due to spending increases (war, Medicare) and 24% due to tax cuts. That strikes me as being more in spending than I had previously thought, and supports my concern that the prescription drug plan is far more costly than we thought.

I can only hope that this is changed after the election -- who is more likely to reduce the cost of the prescription drug obligation?

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