I’ve already mentioned that Texas is looking at a shortfall in its unemployment insurance fund. Well, today we find that as things stand right now, the well runs dry in March. This will force the state to borrow money from the Feds (at 6.27% interest) as well as to hike taxes on businesses by $1.6 billion in 2003.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office has lowered its surplus projections from $5.6 trillion over ten years to $1.6 trillion. The CBO had once projected that most of the national debt would be retired by 2008, but now “the loss of surpluses means the debt is expected to remain high, at $2.8 trillion, and continue to cost hundreds of billions of dollars each year in interest payments.”
Note to Senator Daschle: I’m waiting for you to make the honest and straightforward case that much of the $1.35 trillion tax cut that was passed last year was wrong and should be rolled back. You’re going to be pilloried by the ideologues no matter what you do, so you may as well do the right thing. Blaming the president for the current mess without taking the argument to its logical conclusion is disingenuous at best. You know what to do, so do it.