KAI RYSSDAL: President Bush wasn't about to let the day pass unnoticed. In fact, he got a jump on the Democrats with an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. And with some remarks to television cameras this morning. Bipartisanship got a nod. He mentioned how he looks forward to working with the other party. And then the president said some things about the economy that deserve a closer look.

So we called Maya MacGuineas. She's the director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation. Maya, good to talk with you...

RYSSDAL: First question to you, Maya, is: Have they cut the deficit in half, as the President says?

MACGUINEAS: Well, it's kind of a tricky game of semantics there. By the standards that they set, they cut the deficit in half. Which means the deficit is half of what they were projecting it would be. But it turns out that their projections that they put forth were actually not correct. And the second kind of tricky part is that they were claiming it's cut in half as a share of the economy. But if you look at the basic numbers, where the deficit was and then where it is today, no it is not yet cut in half of where it was when he first made that promise. But the numbers have been coming down. They're moving in the right direction. I would say they're not moving there quickly enough...

RYSSDAL: Alright. He talked a little bit about his upcoming budget, too. Let's listen to that:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Next month I will present a five-year budget proposal that will balance the federal budget by 2012. This budget will restrain spending, while setting priorities.

RYSSDAL: What's he going to have to do, Maya, to get that done?

MACGUINEAS: Well, it's a good promise. It's not even an overly aggressive promise. It is really quite possible that the budget will be balanced by 2012. But the things to look for are, is his budget going to include all of the things that, one, we know will be there? For instance, will it include the spending on the war and operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Two, will it include all the other things he has said he would like to have as part of public policy? Meaning, Social Security reform, or fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax, or making the tax cuts permanent. And three, is it realistic? If he kind of plays games with the budget by promising to keep certain parts of it very low, beyond what we've ever seen — knowing that Congress will then go in and boost up those spending numbers — then it's not really credible.

But the bottom line is, I think getting the deficit eliminated by 2012 is quite doable if you have both parties working together. But one of the real challenges is, we should actually be running budget surpluses long before 2012 in order to prepare for the upcoming retirement of the Baby Boom. So even that goal's not as aggressive as it should be...

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