Patterico's Pontifications

1/26/2010

Projected $1.35T Federal Deficit

Filed under: Economics,Government — DRJ @ 5:48 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

USA Today:

“The budget deficits facing Obama and Congress are large and intractable, and the CBO prediction for 2010 is roughly equal to last year’s record $1.4 trillion ocean of red ink. That means the government is borrowing to cover 40% of the cost of its programs.”

The CBO also forecasts continued high unemployment and a slow economic recovery.

— DRJ

11 Responses to “Projected $1.35T Federal Deficit”

  1. Remember when Democrats were attacking George W. Bush for deficits that were a small fraction of Obama’s? Well, Democrats certainly wish you would forget.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  2. Imdw and MadCow would suggest that more spending is the way to avoid bankruptcy.

    JD (8cb8de)

  3. People get a clue! Obama tries to pose as a fiscal conservative by floating his “freeze on discretionary spending” after raising spending to historic levels in 2009. So he locks in the very spending that will eventually bring America to its knees and cause her demise.

    Brian Riedl writes:

    —While the CBO projects a ten-year deficit of $6 trillion, a more realistic current policy baseline – that assumes the tax cuts are extended, the AMT is fixed, and discretionary spending grows with the economy – shows a ten-year deficit of $13 trillion.

    —By 2020, this more realistic budget forecasts a $1.9 trillion annual budget deficit, a public debt of $22 trillion (98 percent of GDP), and annual net interest spending surpassing $1 trillion (one-quarter of all tax revenue).

    —Compared to the historical average, 88 percent of the added 2020 budget deficit comes from higher spending, and just 12 percent comes from lower tax revenues – and even that assumes all 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are extended and the AMT is patched. Clearly, spending is the problem.

    —After the debt slowly grew to $5.8 trillion through 2008, the more realistic baseline shows the federal government adding an astonishing $16.3 trillion in new debt between 2009 and 2020—$130,000 per household over those 12 years.

    —Overall, from 2001 through 2009, federal spending surged 51 percent faster than inflation. Federal spending per household expanded from $21,510 in 2001 to $29,813 in 2009.

    —This baseline does not count the cost of president Obama’s proposals, such as health care and cap-and-trade, which would increase spending further.

    http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/wm2780.cfm

    GeneralMalaise (919990)

  4. Don’t worry, Captain Awesome is going to assure us in his speech that he’s going to lower the deficit, and this time he and his Insane Clown Posse really mean it.

    Dmac (539341)

  5. A $15 billion dollar spending “freeze” will solve the whole problem.

    Sheesh, the Empty Suit(tm) really thinks we are complete idiots.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  6. It’s time to update that bar-graph!

    AD - RtR/OS! (6c8faf)

  7. You jackasses. Obama has promised not to increase the pay of those on his staff that are paid int he 6 figures. That’s a savings of 4 million dollars a year.

    Well, it’s not a savings, but it’s a not-increase.

    Of 4 million bucks.

    And that’s just if you don’t propose to pay them a trillion dollars and then freeze it.

    Can’t you see he’s trying so hard? do I need to get Ellie in here? This is so hard. And he’s trying. If he saves 4 million bucks every year, it will only take about 337 thousand years to balance the budget… well, not really, since it’s a not-increase. But anyway, this is hard and he’s trying.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  8. All for stimulus round two, please raise your left hand and say “aye.”

    Surely there are some pet projects of Congressional Democrats that David Obey forgot to fund last time around.

    JVW (aa179b)

  9. If they ever track down all of the money going to ACORN, MoveOn.org, and all of the other shadow organizations of the Left, it will be a textbook on money laudering – and will make the embezzlement of foreign aid by the Haitian cleptocracy seem like small potatoes.

    AD - RtR/OS! (6c8faf)

  10. Cap and trade will solve all our problems. It will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create green jobs and solve global warming at the same time. It’s even more fantastic than Obamacare! Just wait, you’ll see!

    daleyrocks (718861)

  11. Some people are just too stupid to be allowed to vote:

    Joe Heffernan was pleased with Obama’s announcement Monday that he would freeze some spending and work toward a balanced budget.

    “He has just started to address it,” Joe Heffernan said. “Really, this $1.3 trillion deficit is from the last year of the Bush administration budget. Obama has been honest about his accounting, including the cost of the war, and I appreciate that honesty.”

    I wonder what Joe’s braindead excuse will be for Obama’s deficit THIS year?

    IgotBupkis (79d71d)


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