The Congressional Budget Office announced yesterday that it’s deficits as far as the eye can see for the federal government, because tax receipts are way down. Remember when President Bush pushed through that juicy tax cut because of those big surpluses and it’s our money after all? The Republicans of course want to pin the problems on 9/11, but the numbers just don’t bear that out. I like paying less taxes as much as the next guy, but returning to the Republican tradition of major red ink (even if it is to gird for war with countries that piss us off) is going to lead to major long term problems, especially when it comes to providing social services to all those soon-to-retire baby boomers. (The punch line to the joke is that independent budget forecasters see the new CBO numbers as optimistic.)