Those who say the deficit is nothing to worry about are probably wrong. Maybe we shouldn’t worry today about squashing it today, when we are trying to climb out of a huge recession, but we should worry today about squashing it someday.
The Congressional Budget Office just released its analysis of President Obama’s 2011 budget, and its not totally reassuring.
The deficit would be $1.5 trillion this year and $1.3 trillion next year. There is a bit of good news — if one defines that term very, very loosely — buried in there. The deficit would be 10.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, but then tumble to 8.9% next year. The 2009 deficit was 9.9% of GDP.
Here’s the really scary thing: government debt would increase from 53 percent of GDP last year to 90 percent of GDP in 2020. Interest payments would increase dramatically.
The president also piles up some BS about the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimating them at $50 billion after next year. CBO instead keeps them at the current $130 billion.
The best news, though, is the president’s health care reform would reduce the deficit by $.2 trillion.
Let’s do it, for reasons related both to ethics and economics.
Explain the health care bill before the final vote
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010Maybe it really is time for a third party.
Truly, truly showing that the Dems don’t get what’s going on, White House adviser David Axelrod went on ABC’s “This Week” and came up with this one about the health care bill:
As a political matter, the foolish thing to do would be for anybody else who supported this to walk away from it,” he said. He added, “The underlying elements of it are popular and important, and people will never know what’s in that bill until we pass it, the president signs it and they have a whole new range of protections they never had before.
Is it asking too much to be clued in before the bill is passed? Isn’t that how it is supposed to work?
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