Bush, Kerry blasted for "free lunch" deficit plans

[mrmatas2277]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites) are inviting voters to a "free lunch" before sticking them with a 1.3-trillion-dollar bill, a new analysis says.

The two candidates vastly different fiscal schemes -- Bush's promise of heavy tax cuts and Kerry's vow to boost spending on social programs -- end up costing about the same -- 1.3 trillion dollars, it finds.

Vying for the mantle of fiscal responsibility in the runup to the November 2 elections, both candidates promise they can halve the deficit within five years.

But both plans are incredible, according to an analysis this month by the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan "grassroots" organization, which advocates fiscal responsibility.

"The choice is between large tax cuts that are unaffordable and smaller tax cuts with higher spending that are also unaffordable," the coalition said in a report.

"The bottom line is that neither candidate has produced a credible set of numbers to back up his deficit reduction rhetoric."

According to the coalition, Bush's tax cuts would cost 1.244 trillion dollars and spending another 82 billion dollars, resulting in a total deficit increase of 1.326 billion dollars.

Kerry's tax plans -- including rolling back tax cuts for the rich but extending them for the middle class -- would cost 498 billion dollars while his plan to raise spending plans, especially for health care, would cost another 771 billion dollars, resulting in a total deficit increase of 1.269 trillion dollars.

Bush inherited a 236 billion dollar surplus.

But this fiscal year, ending September 30, he is expected to incur an unprecedented deficit of 415 billion dollars, according to the Congressional Budget Office (news - web sites), a bipartisan advisory office to Congress.

Official figures for the 2004 deficit are due this week.

"Getting control of a ballooning budget deficit requires two things that candidates are loath to discuss -- spending cuts when they would prefer to talk about increases and tax increases when they would prefer to talk about cuts," the Concord Coalition said.

"Yet the American people deserve something more from their candidates than an invitation to a free lunch -- even if that is what they want to hear."

[jtk4]

you hear 4 trillion and think it is alot but compared to how much we make well it still seems like alot