as printed in Saturday’s Lincoln Journal Star:
Long-term deficit predictions have proven notoriously fickle — George W. Bush inherited flawed projections of a 10-year, $5.6 trillion surplus and instead produced record deficits — and if the economy outperforms CBO’s expectations, the deficits could prove significantly smaller.
You’ve got to admire this version of history. The surplus-turned-record deficits we saw at the end of 2008 apparently had nothing to do with eight years of massive tax giveaways, the huge prescription drug benefits or two ongoing wars — the CBO just issued “flawed projections” in 2000.