- #36
Njorl
Science Advisor
- 288
- 19
hughes johnson said:Hocus-pocus. All of it. If you ever have the opportunity to get involved in a government budget projection you will never be the same again. It will scar you for life...LOL. First you see how much money you will need to balance the books, then you figure out if it is good for your party to have that much money coming in or not, then you call all your people and tell them how much money to "find" or how much money to "lose". Amazingly, when the numbers come back, they match what you have already written down weeks in advance. It's a joke. Don't buy it, no matter what party you're in, or what country you're in. Don't buy it now, or in the future. It is a crock, always was, always will be.
The budget projections of both the OMB (Clinton White house) and CBO (Republican Congress) showed deficits for the last years of the Clinton presidency. They were wrong. The revenues turned out to be in surplus. Do you think that they both intentionally low-balled the revenue estimates for political gain?
While the 10 year budget projections are just voodoo, the 5 year and shorter projections have some accuracy and use. They are subject to both political manipulation, and some genuine error, but they are not useless. It is in the interest of some people to make them seem useless. Those who advocate reckless budgetary policies with the intent of bankrupting the federal government wish to discredit the CBO and OMB. Unfortunately, our current president happens to be among them.
Njorl