Let's put the budget debate in context

It was only 8 months ago (seems longer, I know) when the Congressional Budget Office confidently predicted that the bank bailout would cost $25 billion.

Here's what the CBO says now about the future budget deficits:



Keep in mind, these are based upon the rosy scenario that we return to nearly 3% annual GDP growth.

Wow.

ADDED: Martin Sullivan, who writes analyses for Tax Notes, is no right-winger. He suggests that March 20, the day the CBO analysis was released, is the official end of the Obama honeymoon (link requires subscription). He concludes:

When we are talking about stimulus spending, even most Republicans will give the administration a pass on large deficits. But it is an entirely different story when it comes to spending after the recession. It is the consensus view -- and it was the administration's view -- that extra efforts for deficit reduction were required after the recession was over.

Now that the CBO has let the cat out of the bag, the president -- if he is going to lead -- must be explicit about how he plans to balance the trade-off between fiscal sustainability and his plans for long-term spending. He cannot simply dismiss the CBO numbers and hope they are wrong.