Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, recently wrote an op-ed that appeared in newspapers around the country, and was also reproduced on the White House blog. Zients touts the 2014 budget belated released last week by President Obama:
Much of Zients’s article focuses on what the president and Congress have done to reduce the deficit in past few years, and that President Obama’s leadership has already put “us more than halfway toward the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say is needed to put us on a fiscally sustainable path.” After calling on Congress to compromise and for all sides to give up their “sacred cows,” Zients closes with this sanguine observation:
“Live within our means” would seem to imply not spending more than one is taking in. However, according to the White House’s own budget tables, the 2014 budget alone has a $744 billion deficit. The smallest deficit in the 10-year projection is $439 billion, and that does not come until 2023. Over those 10 years, a total of $5.27 trillion would be added to the nation’s debt. This gives “live within our means” a whole new meaning.
