by Calculated Risk on 2/08/2005 04:15:00 PM

Add the Economist's take: Holding the line? to Macroblog's summary of budget commentary.

Excerpts:

"George Bush has submitted a budget that is tough on discretionary spending for this coming year. But Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as proposed changes to Social Security and the tax code, still leave black clouds on the fiscal horizon"

And more:

"But Mr Bush’s new-found fiscal conservatism is patchy. His current deficits are primarily the result of a collapse in tax revenues, down from 20.8% of GDP in 2000 to 16.8% this year, yet he intends to make his tax cuts permanent. Security spending is also largely exempt from his tight-fistedness. Next year, defence spending will grow by 4.8% in nominal terms, to $419 billion; homeland-security outlays will go up by 1.2%, to $29 billion. And the budget does not include likely “supplementals” for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress has already approved one such supplemental, of $25 billion for fiscal 2005, and is preparing to consider another $80-billion request from Mr Bush.

Indeed, none of these numbers is safe from Congress. Budget hawks fear so-called “Washington Monument proposals”: proposals to cut or close emotive programmes or landmarks, which the public (and their legislators) will never allow."

And on the AMT:

"Other fiscal pain has also been put off, but cannot be avoided forever. One headache is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)."

The major media is looking deeper than the Bush Administration inspired headlines of “Deep Spending Cuts” and “Sweeping Budget Cuts”. That is a start.