Our Opinion: CBO injects reality into rosy budget scenario

Budgets projections, by definition, are inexact, which is why budget craftsmen must be objective and realistic.

When President Barack Obama unveiled his proposed budget earlier this year, we criticized him for failed leadership in addressing the burgeoning federal debt.

Now, we learn his projections also are improbable.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported Friday Obama's budget underestimated future budget deficits by more than $2 trillion over the next decade.

The CBO projects deficits totaling $9.5 trillion in the next 10 years, about $2.3 trillion higher than Obama's anticipated $7.2 trillion.

What does mean for our future?

The CBO forecasts that the portion of debt held by investors and foreign countries will reach 87 percent by 2012. As a consequence, interest fees alone for the government will soar from $214 billion this year to almost $1 trillion by the end of the decade.

Elected officials favor rosy budget scenarios to help them gain in public opinion polls and win reelection.

The scenario from the CBO is anything but rosy. It isn't good for the Democratic president, Tea Party Republicans - whose efforts toward a balanced budget just got more difficult - or for the citizens of this nation.

Politicians allergic to tough economic decisions continue creating illusions designed to fool the public.

These illusions are perpetuated because practical steps to cut the deficit will be painful - for politicians and the public.

But the public deserves honest and forthright budget appraisals and action.

We've all heard the phrase, "mortgaging our future."

The federal debt and interest owed is growing - by trillions of dollars.

And the day of reckoning gets nearer each day.