Cord Byrd: “an apocryphal tale is often told by professors of economics in classrooms across the country. It is a tale about a king…”

“an apocryphal tale is often told by professors of economics in classrooms across the country. It is a tale about a king who asks his advisers to teach him the laws of economics. The king's advisers return with a book on the subject. But the king tells his advisers that his time is precious, and he asks them to summarize the book. The king's advisers return with a single piece of paper. But the king again tells his advisers that his time is precious and he sends them away to summarize the lesson even further. The king's advisers finally return with a single line, summarizing all of the known laws of economics. The king reads: ``There is no such thing as a free lunch.'' For most people, this is a universally accepted truism--just plain common sense--that nothing is free. There are tradeoffs and opportunity costs to every decision we make. Even a child can understand this most basic economic principle. But for the Bush administration, you can beat them over the head with their own budget and still they will not acknowledge the tradeoffs and opportunity costs of the budgetary decisions they have made. On July 15, the administration released its mid-year budget and economic forecast, the so-called ``Mid-Session Review.'' The Office of Management and Budget revealed to the American people that the Government would run an incredible, record-breaking $455 billion deficit in the fiscal year 2003. Worse, the deficit will increase to $475 billion in the fiscal year 2004.”