Deficit Decrease Expected

According to a Washington Times report, their has been an unexpected jump in tax revenues due to the President’s economic policies and corporate tax payments that should help drive down the budget deficit by a much as $50 billion from last year. While this news is a welcome sign, Congress must continue to work to curb spending which has grown by 8.6% from last year. While this is partly due to money that has gone to Iraq and Hurricane relief, pork projects such as the infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ are large culprits. OMB Chairman Rob Portman says that for the deficit to continue to go down, Congress in the short term must give the President line item veto authority and in the long term limit entitlement spending by reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.