James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic, has the scoop on the real source of the deficit Washington is facing - what an embarrassment this revelation must be to Paul Ryan, et al, along with assorted media reps, including David Brooks of the NY Times and the staff of the publicly funded PBS NewsHour who apparently prefer dismantling programs for the elderly and the poor over taxing the rich.
Fallows cites the chart on the left provided by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities that analyzes the sources of the federal budget deficit:
The original explanation and source notes are on the CBPP's site. In brief: the parts in shades of blue are stimulus-related outlays and depressed revenues for economic slowdown. The big dark-golden colored central swath is the revenue forgone by extending the Bush-era tax cuts.*
Fallows quotes Chad Stone of the CBPP:
"simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule (or paying for any portions that policymakers decide to extend) would stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio for the next decade. While we'd have to do much more to keep the debt stable over the longer run, that would be a huge accomplishment."
* As many readers have pointed out, although these cuts were enacted at the start of the George W. Bush Administration and supposed to expire last year, they need to be called "Bush-era cuts" rather than strictly "Bush tax cuts" since they were of course extended under President Obama.
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