Amazing. Obama's nominee for the White House Budget Office just said that he expects large budget deficits of 5% of GDP for the next 5-10 years!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/13/budget-nominee-says-deficits-bruising-decade

Peter Orszag testified at his confirmation hearing Tuesday that he expects budget deficits equaling 5 percent of the size of the economy for the next five or 10 years.

So Obama has said we'll have trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, and now his nominee for the White House Budget office is suggesting 5% of GDP for 5-10 years. 5% of GDP, given the current size of the $14 trillion economy, is $700 billion.

So after we get past a few years of trillion-dollar deficits I guess we can relax when our deficit shrinks to only $700 billion per year for the remainder of the Obama presidency. After which, of course, the Social Security insolvency problem will arise and demand increasing deficits in the federal budget or higher Social Security taxes.

So assume $1 trillion deficits for 3 years and then $700 billion for the next 5. If Obama's presidency lasts eight years, we're looking at Obama increasing the national debt by at least $6.5 trillion. That's more than any president in history. Even more than President Bush! And it would leave our national debt at about $17 trillion by the time he's done.

Really, does anyone think this is sustainable? Anyone?