Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Obama budget chief admits forecasts were junk

First the OMB admitted the CBO were right and they were underestimating the 10 year budget deficit by $2 trillion. Now, Obama budget chief Peter Orszag says the recession is deeper than they predicted.

From Bloomberg:
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air connects the dots.
Let’s recall the difference between Orszag’s OMB projections for the deficit in March, and the CBO’s numbers:

The difference between these projections was the prediction of Obama’s economic advisers of US economic performance. They predicated their numbers, in the light pink, based on the entirely unrealistic expectation of getting -1.2% GDP growth this year, after the first quarter came in at -6% (annualized), later revised to -5.4%. Even while the second quarter continued to look poor, the OMB continued with its sunny analysis. Now that we’re in the middle of the third quarter and growth remains elusive — and more importantly, unemployment continues to rise — the White House has no fig leaf to hide their errors.

Don't worry. Obama budget chief Peter Orszag has a plan to get us through this "deeper recession." He wants to spend more money.

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