The Deficit Is Actually Shrinking, Despite Beltway Propaganda

[Lakhota]

94 percent of Americans don't know the deficit is falling.

There is no deficit problem. The deficit is down 50 percent as a share of gross domestic product just since President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 deficit and is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. Yet the Washington debate is about how and where to cut us back into recession. Why?

Congress should just repeal the sequester – we don’t need it. We have 10 years to fix the long-term deficit situation. We should not be stampeded by deficit-scare propaganda and instead take the time to carefully consider the right approach. That way we won’t make the mistakes that Europe is making.

Deficit Falling

Here is a chart of the deficit as a percent of GDP: (Data sources below)

Once again, because it might be hard to register due to the drumbeat of deficit-scare propaganda, this is a fact: the deficit is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. It is down 50 percent as a percent of GDP just since Bush’s huge $1.4 trillion fiscal 2009 deficit. And the deficit is projected to be stable for a decade.

All of that means that no, we do not have a “deficit emergency,” the deficit is not “out of control” and we have 10 years to decide how best to fix things.

So let’s stop listening to the drumbeat of “deficit shock” propaganda and not be rushed into doing any more stupid, destructive cuts in the things We, the People do to make our lives better.

Medicare Cost Growth Way Down, Too

You probably hear again and again that Medicare is the driver of future deficit trouble.

Here is something you probably didn’t know because of the drumbeat of deficit propaganda: Medicare cost growth is way down. From 2000 through 2009, Medicare spending climbed by an average of 9.7 percent a year. Now those increases are down to 1.9 percent and are still falling.

Take a look at this report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Growth In Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary Continues To Hit Historic Lows:

The very slow growth in Medicare spending in fiscal year 2012 follows slow growth in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, spending grew at only 1.8 percent per beneficiary, and in 2011 at 3.6 percent. Over the three year period from 2010-2012, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew an average of 1.9 percent annually, or more than 1 percentage point more slowly than the average annual growth of 3.2 percent in per capita GDP.​

More: Everybody Listen Up! The Deficit Is Actually Shrinking, Despite Beltway Propaganda

 

[Political Junky]

Can't wait for cons to attempt to challenge this.

 

[Obamanation]

Lol --- you can't be serious. ---- the defecit should be a SURPLUS!!!!


Why does national debt increase by a trillion a year?

Can't wait to hear the dems attempt to challange that!!!

 

[Lakhota]

Guess What? The Debt Everyone Is Freaking Out About Does Not Exist

 

[blackhawk]

Alternet yeah they don't have a liberal agenda.

 

[Little-Acorn]

It's always a hoot to see the desperate Democrats try to portray future guessed-at deficits as established "facts".

Never mind that they've never predicted one right yet. The deficits always turn out MUCH higher than their guesses. Every time.

Here they're basing an entire thread on one of these absurd, always-wrong guesses.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.......

 

[Lakhota]

Alternet yeah they don't have a liberal agenda.

Their claims are supported with references and numerous live links.

 

[blackhawk]

Alternet yeah they don't have a liberal agenda.

Their claims are supported with references and numerous live links.

And the information is cherry picked to support their viewpoint I take partisan liberal sources as serious as I suspect you take partisan conservative ones.

 

[Lakhota]

It's always a hoot to see the desperate Democrats try to portray future guessed-at deficits as established "facts".

Never mind that they've never predicted one right yet. The deficits always turn out MUCH higher than their guesses. Every time.

Here they're basing an entire thread on one of these absurd, always-wrong guesses.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.......

Democrat President Clinton gave America the first balanced budgets since LBJ in 1969.

Which republican president balanced a budget

 

[Avatar4321]

that would be because the growth of GDP has been going down. You know, the economy getting worse. The actual Deficit is increasing.

See, if you were being honest, you wouldn't have to manipulate the numbers and you could simply point to the deficit without pointing to the deficit/GDP.

So tell me, why are you so afraid to post the ACTUAL deficit numbers?

 

[Lakhota]

Alternet yeah they don't have a liberal agenda.

Their claims are supported with references and numerous live links.

And the information is cherry picked to support their viewpoint I take partisan liberal sources as serious as I suspect you take partisan conservative ones.

Well, just prove it wrong...

 

[Obamanation]

Their claims are supported with references and numerous live links.

And the information is cherry picked to support their viewpoint I take partisan liberal sources as serious as I suspect you take partisan conservative ones.

Well, just prove it wrong...

We did prove it.... to be meaningless...

Just like borrowing nearly half of every dollar the us Gov't spends... it's unpartriotic... I think that's the way Obama Bin Lyin' put it...

...until it became his debt... now it's unpatriotic to not spend a trillion more than the gov't takes in every year. RIGHT O???

 

[bucs90]

94 percent of Americans don't know the deficit is falling.

There is no deficit problem. The deficit is down 50 percent as a share of gross domestic product just since President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 deficit and is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. Yet the Washington debate is about how and where to cut us back into recession. Why?

Congress should just repeal the sequester – we don’t need it. We have 10 years to fix the long-term deficit situation. We should not be stampeded by deficit-scare propaganda and instead take the time to carefully consider the right approach. That way we won’t make the mistakes that Europe is making.

Deficit Falling

Here is a chart of the deficit as a percent of GDP: (Data sources below)

Once again, because it might be hard to register due to the drumbeat of deficit-scare propaganda, this is a fact: the deficit is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. It is down 50 percent as a percent of GDP just since Bush’s huge $1.4 trillion fiscal 2009 deficit. And the deficit is projected to be stable for a decade.

All of that means that no, we do not have a “deficit emergency,” the deficit is not “out of control” and we have 10 years to decide how best to fix things.

So let’s stop listening to the drumbeat of “deficit shock” propaganda and not be rushed into doing any more stupid, destructive cuts in the things We, the People do to make our lives better.

Medicare Cost Growth Way Down, Too

You probably hear again and again that Medicare is the driver of future deficit trouble.

Here is something you probably didn’t know because of the drumbeat of deficit propaganda: Medicare cost growth is way down. From 2000 through 2009, Medicare spending climbed by an average of 9.7 percent a year. Now those increases are down to 1.9 percent and are still falling.

Take a look at this report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Growth In Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary Continues To Hit Historic Lows:

The very slow growth in Medicare spending in fiscal year 2012 follows slow growth in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, spending grew at only 1.8 percent per beneficiary, and in 2011 at 3.6 percent. Over the three year period from 2010-2012, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew an average of 1.9 percent annually, or more than 1 percentage point more slowly than the average annual growth of 3.2 percent in per capita GDP.​

More: Everybody Listen Up! The Deficit Is Actually Shrinking, Despite Beltway Propaganda

If this is true, and somehow President Obama were to actually end our wars, fix our deficit, and rebound the economy, then the GOP would be in the same unemployment and welfare lines that they bitch about others being in.

 

[neomalthusian]

As time has gone on, I have grown increasingly wary about measuring things in terms of GDP. I believe the deficit will decrease in non-GDP terms as well from its 2008-2011 levels, but good God I would hope so in any event. You can only use the economic crisis as a reason to federally spend and monetarily stimulate for so long before people grow tired of it and need a new crisis to motivate their support.

Anyway, about C + I + G + (X - M).

"The GDP framework cannot tell us whether final goods and services that were produced during a particular period of time are a reflection of real wealth expansion, or a reflection of capital consumption. For instance, if a government embarks on the building of a pyramid, which adds absolutely nothing to the well-being of individuals, the GDP framework will regard this as economic growth. In reality, however, the building of the pyramid will divert real funding from wealth-generating activities, thereby stifling the production of wealth.

So what are we to make out of the periodical pronouncements that the economy, as depicted by real GDP, grew by a particular percentage? All we can say is that this percentage has nothing to do with real economic growth and that it most likely mirrors the pace of monetary pumping. We can thus conclude that the GDP framework is an empty abstraction devoid of any link to the real world."

- Frank Shostak

 

[Synthaholic]

Alternet yeah they don't have a liberal agenda.

Facts have a Liberal agenda.

 

[OKTexas]

94 percent of Americans don't know the deficit is falling.

There is no deficit problem. The deficit is down 50 percent as a share of gross domestic product just since President Bush’s fiscal year 2009 deficit and is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. Yet the Washington debate is about how and where to cut us back into recession. Why?

Congress should just repeal the sequester – we don’t need it. We have 10 years to fix the long-term deficit situation. We should not be stampeded by deficit-scare propaganda and instead take the time to carefully consider the right approach. That way we won’t make the mistakes that Europe is making.

Deficit Falling

Here is a chart of the deficit as a percent of GDP: (Data sources below)

Once again, because it might be hard to register due to the drumbeat of deficit-scare propaganda, this is a fact: the deficit is falling at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. It is down 50 percent as a percent of GDP just since Bush’s huge $1.4 trillion fiscal 2009 deficit. And the deficit is projected to be stable for a decade.

All of that means that no, we do not have a “deficit emergency,” the deficit is not “out of control” and we have 10 years to decide how best to fix things.

So let’s stop listening to the drumbeat of “deficit shock” propaganda and not be rushed into doing any more stupid, destructive cuts in the things We, the People do to make our lives better.

Medicare Cost Growth Way Down, Too

You probably hear again and again that Medicare is the driver of future deficit trouble.

Here is something you probably didn’t know because of the drumbeat of deficit propaganda: Medicare cost growth is way down. From 2000 through 2009, Medicare spending climbed by an average of 9.7 percent a year. Now those increases are down to 1.9 percent and are still falling.

Take a look at this report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Growth In Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary Continues To Hit Historic Lows:

The very slow growth in Medicare spending in fiscal year 2012 follows slow growth in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, spending grew at only 1.8 percent per beneficiary, and in 2011 at 3.6 percent. Over the three year period from 2010-2012, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew an average of 1.9 percent annually, or more than 1 percentage point more slowly than the average annual growth of 3.2 percent in per capita GDP.​

More: Everybody Listen Up! The Deficit Is Actually Shrinking, Despite Beltway Propaganda

If this is true, and somehow President Obama were to actually end our wars, fix our deficit, and rebound the economy, then the GOP would be in the same unemployment and welfare lines that they bitch about others being in.

Did ya bother to look where the deficit chart came from? Just more WH propaganda. You guys just eat up Maobamas marketing don't ya? You ever think they will quit lying?

 

[Lakhota]

More: Everybody Listen Up! The Deficit Is Actually Shrinking, Despite Beltway Propaganda

If this is true, and somehow President Obama were to actually end our wars, fix our deficit, and rebound the economy, then the GOP would be in the same unemployment and welfare lines that they bitch about others being in.

Did ya bother to look where the deficit chart came from? Just more WH propaganda. You guys just eat up Maobamas marketing don't ya? You ever think they will quit lying?

Yeah, I bothered. Did you?

Chart data sources:
GDP Source: BEA National Economic Accounts
2013 forcast using low 2.5%: Fed Officials Upgrade Economic Growth Outlook in 2013, 2014 - Bloomberg
Deficit: Historical Tables | The White House
2013, 2014 deficit estimates:CBO Sees FY 2013 Budget Deficit at $845B, Smallest Since '08 | Fox Business

 

[Lakhota]

So, what's the problem?

 

[DiamondDave]

Already 901B in deficit this fiscal year compared to 1.327T total all of last year... The government is not 'shrinking the deficit' and government will most assuredly spend more than last year

 

[RoadVirus]

Just wait until the costs of Obamacare start to really kick in.