Bush Budget Slight of Hand, Part I

I've never read one of these things before, and I'll admit that I haven't read the whole thing. However, just perusing the Bush 2007 budget proposal I've found a number of items that are quite eye opening.

Here's a good one that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. The President is proposing to change the budget baseline to include the extension of his 2001 and 2003 expiring tax cuts. This is quite a tricky maneuver that you have to think about for a moment to understand its implications. If the budget baseline is modified to include the extension of these tax cuts, then the President never has to account for their impact to the budget! The cuts could only be passed in the first place by including the expiration, because of the enormous long-term impact. And now that impact can magically be wiped away as if it will never happen!

I plan on writing more about the proposed budget later, but I thought this one item was especially worth noting.