The Heritage Foundation has released a report on the state of the national deficit. It's not pretty.

The reason these numbers are so much worse than the CBO predictions are because the CBO apparently lacks any ability to predict the budget deficit. Specifically, they refuse to include in their estimates the costs of rebuilding Iraq, rebuilding New Orleans, inflationary increases in spending, or even the cost of Bush's tax cuts. Doesn't sound like much of a budget office if they won't include our nation's expenses when they calculate the freaking budget.

Anyway, here's the relevant part of the report.

Budget deficits are far larger than CBO projects.

Realistic baseline assumptions show that the federal budget is in much worse shape than the CBO's baseline numbers indicate. While CBO projects a balanced budget by 2012, it is far more likely that the deficit will explode:

1. The deficit will reach $394 billion in 2006;
   
2. $412 billion in 2007;
   
3. $428 billion in 2008;
   
4. $436 billion in 2009;
   
5. $458 billion in 2010; and
   
6. $805 billion in 2015.

By 2015 it would it take a $6,500-per-household tax increase just to balance the budget.

Now, because Heritage is full of total fucking idiots, their solution isn't to eliminate tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans but to cut entitlement programs, by about 50%. Now there's some analysis, these jackasses think this is realistic policy advice? Or that even if it were good advice that any politician in their right mind would completely eliminate Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security or cut all of them nearly in half? Of course they wouldn't suggest in a million years cutting our military budget and all those cold war pork projects that should have been killed decades ago like SDI. No one in a million years would suggest that the country that spends more on defense than every other Western nation combined could stand to trim some fat out of the war machine. No, instead if making realistic changes to the reality of the post cold war era (15 years late one might add) it's screw the old folks time. Nice Heritage. Keep those winning ideas coming.

Thanks Kos.