Why Did the Deficit Just
Top $1 Trillion? Here’s
Another Clue For You All
Issues & Insights,
by
The Editorial Board
Original Article
Posted By: RockyTCB,
9/12/2019 6:13:44 AM
The Congressional Budget Office reported on Tuesday that, with one month to go, the federal deficit for fiscal year 2019 has already topped $1 trillion. As night follows day, Trump administration critics blamed the tax cuts.
And once again, the data prove them wrong.
The CBO report says that the federal deficit reached $1.067 by the end of August. That’s up $168 billion from the comparable period in fiscal year 2018. The deficit this year will be larger than the entire budget was in 1987.
Where did the increase come from? Why, tax cuts, of course.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
tootall 9/12/2019 7:34:28 AM (No. 177739)
When asked how he went bankrupt, Ernest Hemingway replied, "Gradually....and then suddenly"
17 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 9/12/2019 7:45:03 AM (No. 177748)
This all started with the stimulus package at the end of 2008. The stimulus was included within the budget and once there it will not go away. If the congress does not pass a new budget and the president sign it we go back to the baseline budget (including stimulus) and add a percentage to it. During the Obama years we never passed a budget through congress with a presidential signature, Thus, we automatically added a trillion to the baseline which is still with us.
Congress just can not accept that if you freeze spending growth that it is not a cut. Anytime we try to stop the growth they scream that we are cutting important programs most of which should be eliminated all together. Example, Department of Education should be eliminated all together. Absolutely worthless and has caused much damage to our education system. Get rid of it. How about The Department of agriculture? What does it do? on and on and on. Any thing that is "non essential" to operate the government in an efficient way should just be shut down for good.
27 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
aez 9/12/2019 7:48:15 AM (No. 177752)
Sorry, cannot resist: The walrus was Paul.
10 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
walcb 9/12/2019 8:13:32 AM (No. 177775)
This happens when unemployment is down and people on food stamps is down, so those costs should be down. Are they? I doubt it.
8 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
seamusm 9/12/2019 8:16:43 AM (No. 177780)
So shy of murdering everyone on Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, or federal employment, HOW do we turn off the federal money spigot in a manner acceptable to the electorate? The last time a candidate proposed shrinking the deficit (Perot) it got us Bill Clinton.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 9/12/2019 8:17:05 AM (No. 177781)
There is absolutely no will in Washington to cut spending. Why? Because there is very little will among the general public to cut spending They will say cut someone else's spending but don't cut mine. This does not end well.
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Laotzu 9/12/2019 8:21:32 AM (No. 177785)
The only kind of "sustainability" not being discussed.
4 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 9/12/2019 8:37:49 AM (No. 177805)
This article is spitting into the wind.
I agree that spending is out of control. It has been out of control for decades. No one has the political will to take the candy from the baby. The American people are spoiled by the spending and a large part of the spending, as represented by the national debt, has already occured. The horses are already out of the barn. The very difficult choice to fix the problem would be to both curtail current spending AND to start paying down the debt. Every year the wasteful spending in the budget is called out in numerous lists. Nothing is done about them. To pay off 5% of the debt a year (20 years to pay it all off) would cost over $1 trillion each year, an additional 25% to the federal budget and the largest item on the budget. There is no national will to tackle this problem because it has no actual impact yet on everyday Americans. It's shielded in paperwork in Washington and politicians only bring it up to beat the opposing party over the head. The cowardly politicians, dems AND Republicans, have no intention of addressing or fixing the problem.
Most of all:
There will be nothing done about the deficit/debt during an election year!
There will be nothing done about the deficit/debt during an election year!
Yes, there will be charges and counter charges but nothing will happen.
After the election, politicians will act as if the problem doesn't exist.
This will only be addressed when the effects become painful for a large group of citizens and politicians spend great efforts to keep that from happening even when what they do actually makes the problem worse.
11 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 9/12/2019 9:04:55 AM (No. 177833)
We are now another step closer to the Aftershock, the long-predicted popping of the global financial bubble that will make the 2008 financial downturn look like a party. Hopefully, China and Japan still all too willing to purchase US Treasuries to keep us afloat for now.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
bpl40 9/12/2019 9:14:32 AM (No. 177841)
Shut off the Trayvon Martin Memorial Fund.
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
dman 9/12/2019 9:38:58 AM (No. 177876)
Balanced budget amendment: if Congress won't do it, then the states [via Article V Convention of States] must do it - among other amendments needed to "keep the Republic".
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
obdurate 9/12/2019 11:21:55 AM (No. 177993)
Why? There are 330 millions of pigs at the trough, we are all guilty, some more than others.
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Strike3 9/12/2019 11:57:23 AM (No. 178025)
Everybody knows individuals who have the same mindset. They run up their credit cards to the max before they realize that they do not have enough available cash to meet monthly expenses. Their first impulse is to borrow more money which increases both principal and interest and exacerbates the problem. One of two things happens, bankruptcy or a lower standard of living until the debt is paid off but that takes extreme discipline. One day the rubber will meet the road for America and a national bankruptcy won't be pretty. Our politicians are killing us because they are stupid and incompetent and the voting process can't fix the problem when they are all that way because it only gets us a different crop of screw-ups..
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
felixcat 9/12/2019 12:26:23 PM (No. 178049)
Not only is there no will in Washington, there's not much will in the rest of the country. End ethanol subsidies? And the corn farmers of Iowa scream. That's just one example.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Republic Can 9/12/2019 7:48:22 PM (No. 178363)
If you've ever walked the blocks and blocks of Dept of AG buildings in DC, you have to ask yourself: WTH? DC needs a liposuction.
0 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 9/12/2019 9:56:17 PM (No. 178413)
@#2 - No govt dept will ever go away, not until the Sun explodes. In the meantime, they will raise taxes and kill off private sector jobs. That's one thing they're good at.
0 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 9/12/2019 10:00:05 PM (No. 178414)
@#11 - What makes you think Congress would adhere to a balanced budget amendment? There would be no penalty if they didn't and someone in DC is stepping on our current Bill of Rights daily...
0 people like this.
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