With the gigabytes of gum flapping we've had to endure from conservatives pretending to be concerned about the deficit over the past several years since Obama took office, you'd have thought we'd have seen them post this bit of good news: Deficit drops yet again - sharply The federal budget deficit just keeps getting smaller. It fell sharply in 2014 -- its fifth consecutive annual decline. That's according to an estimate Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit for fiscal year 2014, which ended on Sept. 30, will come in at roughly $486 billion, the CBO said. The Treasury Department will report the official number in a few weeks. The 2014 number is $195 billion less than a year earlier. And as a share of the economy, the deficit dropped to 2.8% of GDP from 4.1% last year. Revenue grew by 9% over the prior year, or by $239 billion. That growth was fueled largely by a 7% jump in income and payroll tax receipts combined. Corporate tax revenue rose by 18%. Spending, meanwhile, only grew by 1% over 2013. The bulk of that growth came from mandatory spending, which Congress doesn't vote on annually. Spending on Social Security benefits went up 5% and Medicare spending rose 2.7%. Medicaid spending jumped nearly 14%, primarily because of health reform provisions that went into effect in January 2014. But the spending increases were largely offset by drops in outlays for defense and some domestic programs. http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20141008/NEWS02/310089980 At $486 billion, that is a $193 billion drop from last year. The deficit is about a third of what it was in 2009; dropping an unprecedented trillion dollars in just 5 years. At 2.8% of estimated GDP, the deficit is now (proportionally) lower than it was in every year Reagan was president, save his first which was part Carter; is lower than 3 of the 4 Bush1 years, and is lower 3 of the Bush2 years. Revenues continued growing strongly following the 2013 tax increase, growing 8.2% from last year. However, despite the admirable growth, revenues proportional to GDP are still 2.5 percentage point lower than their high water mark of 19.7% in 2000. That 2.5 percentage points equates to $425 billion less in tax revenues -- almost the entire amount of the total deficit this year. Meanwhile, expenditures grew only about 1%. Big cuts in defense and discretionary expenditures were offset by mandatory spending increases for things like SS and Medicare and Medicaid. The nation is still spending less than it did 4 years ago -- austerity in a time the economy has been trying to recover from the worst recession since the GD. At 20% of estimated GDP, the Govt is now spending (proportionally) at a rate that is lower than any year Reagan or Bush1 were president. Defense spending fell by 5%, or $30 billion, while spending by the Department of Housing and Urban Development dropped by 31%, or $18 billion. And unemployment benefits fell by 34%, or $24 billion. http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/20141008/NEWS02/310089980 Good news is bad news to those invested in failure for political purposes, which may be why none of our conservative friends posted this news. But the deficit paranoia we've heard from the right every since Obama took office has far less basis today. It is way past time we stop focusing on the deficit, and start focusing on spending a bit more to get more people back to work.
HO HO HO, good stuff. I recommend really continuing with this policy, which I think Obama will. Once again its the left that brings the deficit down by agreeing to cut spending across the board. Then we will see exactly how readily the GOP and the right care about sound finance. Lets ask them how they wish the government to pay for the new wars the right wants to start.
Utterly, tragically in-f-ing-sane to celebrate a half a trillion dollar deficit in some perverse leftist way as "the deficit just keeps on dropping!" Do they not understand that even a sluggish miasma of a recovery compared to a near depression leads to higher tax receipts that accomplish this? Of course not. "Great news! We are up to our eyeballs in sh-t, can't breathe, but at least we aren't submerged any more! All hail the brilliant economic policies of <insert my guy here>!" Formula for the next collapse. 1. Keep interest rates artificially low. 2. Pump out govt debt in truly staggering amounts in the name of "stimulus" that somehow gets diverted to special interests and never accomplishes much. 3. Keep growing the govt and regulations on the real economy by leaps and bounds 4. Allow entrenched special interests that make up the DJIA and S&P to form an artificially stimulated, overheated blowoff top over several years. 5. Inflation results in the interim. 6. Stuck on the horns of high inflation and let it eat everyone's savings>>> collapse or raise interest rates and watch our debt get downgraded>>> collapse. Most important step? 7. Keep the rabble blind while we make ours off the overheated DJIA top (we'll be out of there early, we may even cause the big drop ourselves getting out so we can play the short side on the way down!), manipulate them with irrelevant crap like income disparities, 1% resentment, unwarranted gloating about deficit reductions, bogus higher employment numbers, other diversions. What about the long run? "Who cares? In the long run we are all dead!" Thanks JMK for that, what a f-ing genius you were. Business as usual among the government, its true constituency, and the gullible, dumb serfs that fall for the obfuscatory noise. Oh, throw in a crazy 8. of a domestic terrorist attack of any substance? This could all go in motion... next week. And so it goes, history repeats.
So the deficit has dropped from $1.4 trillion when Obama took office to less than 1/2 trillion now, an unprecedented drop in both actual and proportional terms, and it is proportionally smaller than every year Reagan was president except his first, and that is bad news to you? As I said, to those invested in failure for political purposes, good news is bad news.
GWB may have been responsible for 400/450B of FY 2009 but for whatever reason the excessive spending falls on a Democratic Congress and President the last 9 months of FY 2009...As for the 2007 Housing Crisis however created, two wars and all the bad things you think GWB spent money on, FY 2007/8 weren't all that bad compared to Obama's. Best you remember a Republican House was there in 2013/14, to keep some stuff under control.... My only comment on this thread.
I can datamine the fact that Sasquatch prefers Cheerios over Lucky Charms if I want. As usual, your raw outcome numbers contain 0 context. I don't see many nonleftists trying to tar the opposition with raw, out of context numbers the way you and many other leftists do here. What if I said the Clinton years were the outcome of Reagan policy, Reagan years the outcome of Carter policy? Would anything start sinking in? No, you'd still just rattle off raw outcome numbers with no interstitial reasoning whatsoever, and lots of necessary context left out. Deficit up? GOP did it! Deficit down? Democrat did it! What a comfortably, secure world that must be... but stay away from the stock market. How... much... of... that... deficit... decrease... is... due... to... discretionary... choices... towards... reduced... spending... versus... naturally... higher... tax... receipts... post... deep... deep... recession... or... forced... sequestration. None. Fact is, you and I both know that Obama policy has little to do with the larger real economy cycles in the now. Just as GWB policy didn't, just as Clinton, GHWB, Reagan and Carter didn't. Govt impact on the economic cycle is slow and hard to plot, despite rabble-rouser's best efforts. Financially ignorant people play this little economy game that the govt loves. When things go bad, blame the other guy. When things go good, our guy did it. Govt loves this because it is great at taking credit for things it didn't do, and great at shifting blame for things it did do. Moreover, how much deficit reduction is due to sequestration? and you want to BRAG about that? Our legislature can't stop deficit spending until the actual government shuts down? (As an aside, did anyone really notice when it did "shut down?") How incompetent, insane is that? They would be instantly forced into Chapter 11 by creditors in the private sector.
FY 2014 came in at $486 billion. See above. The deficit was already projected to hit $1.2 trillion two weeks before Obama took office. A projection that was changed to $1.9 trillion within weeks of him taking office.
I appreciate conservatives' propensity to fabricate facts. Feel free to explain why you think the numbers I posted are "out of context". I'd disagree with you. Can you point out where I said anything about who did it? Or are you just ranting at strawmen because you can't stand any positive news because you're invested in failure for political reasons like so many of our conservative friends. Revenue jumped after the 2013 tax increase, up 13% in 2013, twice as much as the year before. They were up another 8-9% in 2014. Those increase revenues certainly had a lot to do with the deficit decrease. And spending cuts did too, no doubt. I disagree. As pointed out, the tax increase Obama pushed substantially increased revenues. But I didn't say anything in the OP about OP. Another straw man. As stated, IMO sequestration and austerity did contribute to the lower deficit, but it has hurt the recovery and economy. As I've stated, to those invested in failure for political purposes, good news is bad news.
Tax receipts dropped by over$ 400 billion from 2008 because of the recession. $245 billion in the TARP program started in late 2008 by Bush. Mandatory spending (social security, medicare, and such accounted for another $110 billion Unemployment benefits jumped by $51 billion That's $856 billion of it right there. None of it attributable to the Obama administration. Source Link
There was some FY2009 spending that can be attributed to Obama. A chunk of the Stimulus spending went out in FY2009, "cash for clunkers", and few other things. The total was in the $150-220 billion range in most the tallies I've seen. Roughly 5% of FY 2009 spending.
when you kill the economy like Bush did, you kill the tax revenue stream too, the economy is recovering
Oh, I'm not denying that there was some money spent by the current admin, but nothing like what the right-wing hype on the subject would suggest.
Wow, it is truly amazing how gullible "progressives" are. The deficit did not drop below $1Trillion. That's just propaganda. From the official source http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/de...tYear=2013&endMonth=10&endDay=01&endYear=2014 The debt on 09/30/2013 (last day of fiscal 2013) the national debt was $16,738,183,526,697.32 The debt on 09/30/2014 (last day of fiscal 2014) the national debt was $17,824,071,380,733.82 Well look at that, the national debt increased $1,085,887,854,036.5 An increase of over $1 Trillion. You guys should really open your eyes and stop blindly believing the obama propaganda.
Wow, it is truly amazing how ignorant "conservatives" are. I'll trust most of our members understand the difference between a deficit and debt. As for borrowing, the number is skewed because a bunch of the money borrowed last year was pushed back from 2013 because of Congress' failure to timely increase the debt ceiling.
LOL, no, you still fail. I posted the national debt data from the US treasury. Straight from the ultimate source, not some PR political middle man. The change in debt during a fiscal year is the national deficit for that year. The fact I have to even explain that highlights your total ignorance of even the most basic of basics of finance. You can't dodge and dance out of it. obama lied again, and you fell for it.
Actually you fail. Imagine a supposed fiscal conservative who doesn't understand interest rates! For Shame!! Bad Republican!! Bad!! No Cookie!! You republicans make me laugh, you don't even know what you're upset about, you're just upset 'cause the talking heads told you to be!
The reason there aren't many comments in this thread is because leftists are equally guilty of attacking conservative spending cuts when they are raised in congress, then when the impact starts to manifest, Krugman gives the signal to start blowing hot air and praising Obama for the effects. It's not intellectual enough to be intellectual dishonesty, it's merely boring at this point and someone would need to be a total idiot to be fooled.
Huh. Here i was thinking its because the board is heavy on the right and nobody wanted to comment on anything irrefutably positive about the current administration. BTW I am aware that there are some cuts passed by the republicans that have some effect on this, as does the sequester that came about because neither side could get their (*)(*)(*)(*) together.
Wow, it is truly amazing how ignorant "conservatives" are. I'll trust most of our members understand the difference between a deficit and debt and know what a deficit is. As for borrowing, the number is skewed because a bunch of the money borrowed last year was pushed back from 2013 because of Congress' failure to timely increase the debt ceiling. - - - Updated - - - You have to look hard through the flotsam and jetsam, but there are a few of us who don't simply regurgitate the RW propaganda.
Paying interest on the debt is an expense line item in the federal budget. No matter how much you try to dodge and dance, you cannot negate the numbers. The US accumulated more than a $1Trillion deficit in fiscal 2014.
