Given the events of the past three years - the economic downturn, the retrenchment in equity markets, the increased need for spending on homeland security, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - some deterioration in the federal budget balance was probably unavoidable, particularly in the short term.
One source of deterioration - the buildup of a larger military force structure - will not persist indefinitely. 2  BIS Review 48/2003  Merely maintaining a given force structure rather than increasing it will remove an important factor driving the deficit higher.