President Bush's budget similarly by making permanent tax cuts will result in less revenue for the government over, not just ten years, but many years beyond. This reflects his belief that limited government can be enforced through limited revenues. The potential problem with this idea is that most federal spending is in the entitlement programs that will explode as the baby boomers begin to retire just beyond the ten-year budget window. Thus a large permanent tax cut could well lead to big deficits again as the cost of entitlement programs continues to rise with the aging of the population. The rest of it comes in the second five years when the size of the projected surplus is in its most speculative phase.
Politicians tend to talk about it that way.
It is perfectly legitimate and even prudent for the government to make ten-year projections but it is imprudent to presume that the projection is akin to a lottery payout and start spending the money. It does not appear that President Bush is targeting any agency for elimination. Some agencies such as the Transportation Department and the Agriculture Department and, ironically, the Federal Emergency Management Agency are targeted for cuts, but certainly he is not proposing these or any other agency. Even some prior targets of Republican leaders in the past such as the Legal Services Corporation and the National Endowment for the Arts have not been put on the chopping block, although their funding has been frozen at this year's level. And, of course, the Education Department which the Reagan administration has been singled out by President Bush for the largest percentage increase.