If you click through and read the article, you'll see the CBO projects the 2012 deficit at $1.08 trillion. Originally the estimate had it dropping below the tantalizing trillion mark, but later revisions nudged it slightly back over that psychological marker.
Can that be right? Can the deficit actually be dropping despite the best efforts of our free wheelin' Socialist-In Chief?
Yes. And it has for some time.
Here's the deficits since 2009 (and remember 2009 was actually mostly President Bush since the fiscal year ran through Oct 1st):
2009: $1.41 trillion
2010: $1.23 trillion
2011: $1.29 trillion
2012: $1.10 trillion
Source: http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_deficit_chart.html
And that chart at the top? That's the rate of increase in Federal spending. That nose dive at the end is not an illusion.
Just a few things to roll around your head in case you have the misfortune of your radio landing on the WSB MEDIA CONVEYOR BELT OF DOOM with some snake oil salesman screaming "HE'S GOING TO SPEND US INTO OBLIVION!"
Reality bites.
5 comments:
Are you serious? The largest yearly deficit prior to 2009 was $458b in 2008. And you're celebrating four straight years of $1t deficits?
So what if the deficit has gone down, the government is still spending a trillion more than it takes in. To put it in perspective, this year's deficit is larger than the entire BUDGET of 1992.
In your quest to knock the troglydytes on the right, you make yourself look stupid by accepting trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
Interesting.
I don't see anywhere that I was "celebrating" or "accepting" trillion dollar deficits.
Merely pointing out that since the Obama administration took full control of the budget, the deficit has steadily been reduced.
In different times, that would not only be accepted but celebrated.
Question: Does this year's estimate use the current 2 month FICA tax cut,or one for a whole year? If only 2months, the $200M difference puts us back to a stable flatline. If the whole year, then we do have a slight improvement.
I honestly don't know.
But I thought tax cuts paid for themselves?
Is there a left side of the Laffer Curve?
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