Reuters: "U.S. debt owed to foreign governments, central banks, private banks and other investors topped $6 trillion in the quarter ended June 30, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. Of that, about $1.270 trillion in principal and another $53.73 billion in interest is due within the next 3 months, according to a new report on the U.S. external debt position issued by Treasury. 'The overall magnitude of U.S. indebtedness to foreigners and some of the major components are already well known. This presentation provides more detail,' Treasury said in announcing it was publishing quarterly data on external debt, broken down by type of creditor, how the debt is denominated and the expected payment schedule."

Jeff Jacoby writes, "As any Republican will be glad to tell you, the GOP is the party of fiscal discipline. Unlike the wastrels of the Democratic Party, Republicans know that all government money is really taxpayers' money, and they take great pains to spend that money frugally. Sure they do. That's why Republican George W. Bush, backed by a Republican Congress, is on track to become the biggest-spending president since LBJ. In the first three years of the Bush administration, government spending has climbed - in real, inflation-adjusted terms - by a staggering 15.6 percent. That far outstrips the budget growth in Clinton's first three years, [as well as the first President Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter.] No, that's not a mistake: Bush is a bigger spender than Carter was." Hey, Karl Rove -- when you lose a right winger like Jeff Jacoby, your goose is cooked. Get outta Dodge now, and skip the impeachment tar and feathers!

A New York Times editorial: "Having done its utmost to choke back the revenue flow into the Treasury, the Bush administration offered a running tab on this year's exploding budget deficit yesterday. To hear the casual patter of White House aides about the deficit, one would think it was pocket change. In fact, the shortfall has ballooned 50 percent in just five months, to $455 billion and counting. This historic high shows no sign of cresting, certainly not while the president's detaxation mania rolls forward. The White House firmly insists that the growing wad of government costs and debt being rolled across the years toward tomorrow's taxpayers is eminently 'manageable.' Actually, what was manageable was the $127 billion surplus the fledgling administration enjoyed just two years ago."

WashPost reports: "The tax cut signed into law last month, coupled with surging defense spending, will send the federal budget deficit above $400 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said yesterday. The forecast, well into record territory, was in line with private-sector estimates, as well as comments made Friday by outgoing White House budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. But the CBO's numbers are important, because they will serve as the official projections as Congress begins work on an expensive Medicare overhaul and the 13 spending bills for fiscal 2004."

AP reports: "The Republican-led Congress passed legislation Friday allowing government debt to grow by a record $984 billion, brushing past Democrats' attempts to spotlight the federal IOUs that have resumed piling up under Resident Bush."

Reuters reports: "The U.S. government will run a record deficit of more than $300 billion this year as increased military spending and weak tax revenues continue to eat into the federal budget, congressional budget analysts said. In its monthly budget report, released late on Friday, the Congressional Budget Office boosted its 2003 deficit forecast from the $246 billion it last predicted in March. But the increase will come as little surprise to budget analysts. The Bush administration forecast in February the deficit would reach $304 billion this year -- topping in dollar terms the previous record of $290 billion set in 1992 [i.e. during Bush I]. Some private sector forecasters expect a deficit of over $400 billion... Tax revenues were $62 billion lower than the same period last year while government spending was $76 billion higher -- mainly due to growth in defense spending, the agency said."

"The government ran up a deficit of $252.6 billion in the first six months of the 2003 budget year, nearly twice the total for the same period a year earlier. The latest figures, released Friday by the Treasury Department, highlighted the government's deteriorating fiscal situation. Record deficits are forecast this year and next. The total deficit so far this fiscal year, from October through March, compares with a shortfall of $131.9 billion a year earlier. Revenues were down by 6.1 percent to $825.2 billion for the six months in comparison to the same period a year earlier. That partly reflected lower tax revenue from the listless economy. Individual income tax payments totaled $372.1 billion, representing an 6.8 percent decline from the previous year. Corporate tax payments plunged by 43 percent to $44.6 billion."

Washingtonpost.com reports: "Senate Republican leaders have agreed to cut $10 billion from this year's batch of domestic spending bills and wind up work on the budget before his State of the Union address in January. Speedy completion of the 11 long-stalled bills would enable the president to credit the GOP takeover of Congress with breaking a budget logjam that Bush has blamed mainly on Senate Democrats. If Congress goes along with his spending levels, he can also claim a victory in his campaign to restrain the growth of domestic programs.... spending cuts [are] virtually certain to ignite fierce fighting in Congress, not only between Democrats and Republicans but also within GOP circles, as lawmakers try to spare their favorite programs from the ax.... strong bipartisan support remains for programs ranging from Amtrak to rural education -- all of which could be subject to federal aid reductions under Bush's plan." Remember that tax cut for the wealthiest 1%?

Gene Lyons writes "Almost nine years ago... Bill Clinton won the closest, most crucial political battle of his presidency -- [his plan to cut the federal deficit]. The Clinton plan passed without a single Republican vote amid GOP predictions of disaster... Instead, the exact opposite happened... Budget deficits vanished, surpluses appeared, and prosperity spread. Apart from the current debacle, it's hard to imagine a more dramatic demonstration that the cherished economic dogmas of the Republican right-wing are simply wrong... Al Gore warned [Bush would undermine Social Security and Medicare. The Washington press corps ignored] Bush's bogus statistics. Few noticed that his Social Security privatization scheme counted almost a third of the system's revenues twice--once to 'invest' it in private accounts, twice to pay seniors' benefits... Well, math can't get any fuzzier than the administration's new budget projections, the GOP equivalent of an old-fashioned Stalinist Five Year Plan."

Tom Oliphant writes of the sleeping giant Bush Scandal: "There is another self-wounded behemoth out there, hiding from the international financial world in the accounting shadows, hoping the hemorrhaging will go unnoticed. This one has a credibility problem that would make even WorldCom blush, a record of dishonesty about its prospects not seen in its line of work for a decade. The behemoth, of course, is the federal government." Bush lied through his teeth to steal the election; he lied through his teeth to get his welfare-for-the-rich tax cut passed; and he lies through his teeth every time he opens his mouth. Guess what? The markets have noticed, and have gone into the tank. Restore confidence in America -- Impeach Bush Now!

The Republican Tax Giveaway to the Rich has already put the budget deep in the red. Now the Treasury is short of cash, and the Republicans are acting like this is an alien invasion from outer space. Sorry, guys, this is YOUR DEBT. Under the law, Congress must vote to raise the debt ceiling to authorize additional borrowing to cover these Republican debts. But the Republicans are desperate to find a way to avoid being held responsible. Memo to Bush and the Republicans: your policies are a disaster, so why don't you do the country a favor and resign!

"Everybody knows President Bush's FY2003 budget is bad for America's working families. But now a special report by DNC Research shows how every State in the Union is hurt by the cuts in the Bush budget. Education programs, job programs, health care services, COPS programs and much more all fall under Bush's knife. Use the map below to see the detailed impact of Bush's budget on working families in your state." So declares the Democratic National Committee.

The Pentagon budget is so bloated that it is forcing deep cuts in domestic programs and a massive raid on Social Security and Medicare. In the American Prospect, Jason Vest identifies four weapons systems Congress should cancel immediately: V-22 Osprey, Crusader Artillery, F-22 Raptor, and the Comanche helicopter. "For 45 years of the Cold War, we were in an arms race with the Soviet Union," says retired Admiral Eugene Carroll of the Center for Defense Information. "Now it appears we're in an arms race with ourselves."

B%$#'s powerful budget director, Mitch Daniels, knows nothing about the federal budget - he's a former political operative and pharmaceutical executive. "To the extent I bring anything ... to this job, maybe it's an ability to think about how a product, whether it's Prozac or a president's [sic] proposal, is marketed." According to Salon.com's "Spinsanity," Daniels is lying about the impact of the $1.7 TRILLION tax cut on budget deficits; he is lying about Ken Lay lobbying him on 10/11/01 for a $250 million alternative minimum tax rebate. "It is a matter of serious public concern that the federal budget director has become just another spinner dragging down public debate... Daniels may not recognize the difference from his previous job, but we must. It is unacceptable to market our nation's economic policies like Prozac."

According to the Boston Globe's Tom Oliphant, B%$#'s budget shows a deficit of "a mere $106 billion assuming some kind of economic stimulus eventually clears Congress. The admission buried in a table in the back of the book is that the amount of government debt outstanding at the end of this year will rise by fully $367 billion to a new world record of $6.1 trillion. There is another claim, made by Bush himself and now part of his administration's political chants - that the deficits showing up now are going to be 'small and short-term.' Again, returning to page 417, the numerical admission is that they will be large and long-term. A reasonable person might ask how an entity allegedly running at a loss of $106 billion in one set of books ends up going in the hole by nearly $370 billion in another set of books... What's on page 417 are the scariest numbers seen around here since Ronald Reagan's first budget projected a surplus in 1984." Call Arthur Andersen - NOT!

The Nation's John Nichols writes, "Bush wants to drain the Social Security trust fund, with a proposal to divert more than $2 trillion in Social Security and Medicare surpluses over the next ten years... to cut 30% of the funding from the federal program that trains doctors at children's hospitals... to cut Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Programs that help Americans heat their homes in winter by 15%... to cut 15% of the budget for repairing dilapidated public housing units... to cut 13% of the funding for Corps of Engineers public works programs designed to prevent flooding of communities, homes and farms... to cut 10% of the funding for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's efforts to reduce job-related deaths, injuries and ailments... to cut federal funding for environmental protection programs, transportation improvements and aid to farm families that are being driven off the land by the thousands each year." Why? To make the rich richer, that's all.

"Now that the Bush administration has taken the tarp off its proposed 2003 budget, I've got one piece of advice for all you children of the future: Stay in the womb as long as you can... As long as you are surrounded by amniotic fluid -- if you've simply begun to subdivide and consist solely of a dozen cells -- you'll have health insurance. That's a lot more than 40 million Americans (almost 11 million of them actual children) can say... Post-born American children had better hope... they never get sick; their parents will never need job protection or training; they live in a region in which the weather makes housing unnecessary... Maybe there's a better option for future children than staying in the womb. They should figure out a way to turn themselves into F-22 fighter jets, AC-130U gunships or Hellfire anti-attack missiles," all part of Bush's $70 billion weapons budget. So writes San Francisco Chronicle columnist Stephanie Salter.

Bush has only delivered $11 billion of the $20 billion he promised NYC, and Bush's budget contains no additional aid. "Mitch Daniels, the White House budget director... first responded that he intended to count $5 billion in relief to victims of Sept. 11 as part of the aid package - a clear violation of everyone's understanding of what the promise meant. Then he lashed out at New York's representatives, saying, 'It's strange to me to treat this as a little money-grubbing game.' The White House quickly tried to undo the damage. Mr. Daniels retracted his remarks, and Mr. Bush reiterated his promise to provide $20 billion - just in time to have another photo op with New York police officers and firefighters. But the money is still not in the budget... My guess is that it comes down to sheer arrogance. Buoyed by those approval ratings, this administration simply believes that its former promises don't matter." So writes NY Times columnist Paul Krugman.

"The budget released Monday by the Bush administration - the nation's first deficit budget in four years - is meeting criticism from all corners, particularly from the environmental community. At a press conference this morning, representatives from several conservation groups denounced the financial 'shell game' employed by the administration to fund its priorities... 'When you go through the details,' said Wesley Warren, senior fellow for environmental economics at the Natural Resources Defense Council, 'there's a series of special handouts to special interests... The budget provides an all you can eat buffet for Big Energy, and crumbs for energy efficiency,' Warren noted. 'It would enrich the administration's energy industry friends, foul our air and water, and do nothing to promote true energy independence.'" So reports the Environmental News Service.

"National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality bemoaned tax cuts that began prior to the events of September 11 as the largest single policy contributing to the $4 trillion reduction in the budget surplus that stood at $5.6 trillion when President Bush assumed office. The League recognizes that the surplus has been further depressed by a decrease in tax income because of the rapid economic slowdown, but not because of increased spending on the economic safety net as in past recessions. Equally disheartening, the League holds, is the size of the tax cuts means that the Bush Administration will have to use the Social Security and Medicare Trust Fund surpluses to fund the tax cuts."

"The tax cut proposal unveiled by the Bush White House Monday is as bold and aggressive politically as its military assault on Afghanistan last October -- and the administration seems to be counting on Democrats to fold as quickly as the Taliban. The political chutzpah of the Bush budget plan is dazzling: The White House is admitting that it will return the nation to the days of budget deficits -- briefly, it insists -- as well as break a campaign pledge to leave the Social Security and Medicare surpluses intact, all to bankroll nearly $2 trillion in tax cuts over the next 10 years that will give more than 40 percent of their benefits to the wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. households." So writes Anthony York at Salon.com.

"Last month, President [sic] Bush visited the job-training center in northeast Portland, touting the program's benefits in the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate. Now, funding for the 2-year-old center, located in the poorest section of Portland, would be cut. Bush sent Congress a $2.13 trillion budget Monday that would slash $545 million from job training programs nationwide -- including the Portland center that Bush himself praised -- saying the money is needed for the war on terrorism. Margaret Carter, a Democratic state senator who also runs the Urban League of Portland, said Bush appears to be talking out of both sides of his mouth... The center would see approximately 80 percent of its funding cut under Bush's budget plan, which would likely result in the firing of its staff. The center currently provides job skills counseling to about 1,400 students." So reports KGW Portland.

"Although Americans express resounding approval of President [sic] Bush's performance at home and abroad, an overwhelming majority would rather cancel later stages of his signature tax cut than tap Social Security revenue to pay for other government programs, a Los Angeles Times Poll has found... Said Doris Walls, a secretary in Denton, Md., who responded to the survey: 'Absolutely do not use Social Security for anything other than Social Security. If they can't figure out some other way ... don't go ahead [with the tax cut].'... Asked whether future installments of the Bush tax cut scheduled for 2004 and 2006 should go through if that meant the government would have to use Social Security revenue to fund other programs, Americans said no by 81% to 13%... Asked if the tax cut should go through if it meant tapping Social Security and increasing the national debt--as Bush's budget proposes for the next three years--84% said no."

"The events of Sept. 11 shocked and horrified the nation; they also presented the Bush administration with a golden opportunity to bury its previous misdeeds. Has more than $4 trillion of projected surplus suddenly evaporated into thin air? Pay no attention to the tax cut: it's all because of the war on terrorism. In short, the administration's strategy is to prevent criticism of what amounts to a fiscal debacle by wrapping its budget in the flag. And I mean that literally: the budget report released yesterday came wrapped in a red, white and blue cover depicting the American flag. No politician hoping for re-election will dare to say it, but the administration's new motto seems to be 'Leave no defense contractor behind.'" So writes NY Times columnist Paul Krugman.

LA Times columnist Robert Scheer writes, "The red ink that Bush wants us to bleed to line the pockets of the defense industry, along with the tax cuts for the rich, will do more damage to our country than any terrorist. The result will be an economically hobbled US, unable to solve its major domestic problems or support meaningful foreign aid, its enormous wealth sacrificed at the altar of military hardware that is largely without purpose. Why the panic to throw billions more at the military when even the Pentagon brass have told us it is not needed? Our military forces, much maligned as inadequate by Bush during the election campaign, proved to be lacking in nothing once the administration decided to stop playing footsie with the Taliban and eliminate those monsters of our own creation... His astonishing budget makes sense only if we are planning to use our mighty military in a pseudo-religious quest to create a super-dominant Pax Americana" - or to enrich Bush's dad at Carlyle.

"The Bush administration has discovered a way to eliminate the deficit in its upcoming budget: Get rid of the minus signs. In an embarrassing blunder, White House budget officials discovered that a number of the tables in the budget that will be released today failed to include minus signs to indicate the budget deficits. Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the tables were fine when they went to the printer but somehow the minus signs disappeared because of a 'software conversion glitch.'" Sure - the software Bush uses to convert truth to lies.

"President [sic] Bush sent Congress a $2.13 trillion budget today that he said would enable the United States to win a war and reinvigorate the economy. But Democrats say the Bush plan would weaken the country's financial foundation and cut from essential programs... 'Enron got into trouble because they didn't fully disclose debt they have, and that is precisely what the federal government is doing,' [said Senate Budget Committee Chair Ken Conrad (D-ND)], contending that the White House wants to spackle over money shortages by dipping into Social Security and Medicare surpluses. Democrats have been criticizing Mr. Bush and his Capitol Hill Republican allies for months for sticking to their $1.35 trillion, decade-long tax-cutting plan even as war and recession have shrunk the government's projected long-range surplus."