Deficit shrinks by $1 trillion in Obama era

[Triana]

In the not-too-distant past, talk in the political world of the U.S. budget deficit was all the rage. As the Tea Party “movement” took shape, conservatives quite literally took to the streets to express their fear that President Obama and Democrats were failing to address the “out of control” deficit.

Congressional Republicans agreed. As recently as 2013, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was asked about the radicalism of his political agenda and he responded, “[W]hat I would say is extreme is a trillion-dollar deficit every year.” Around the same time, then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) argued that Congress should be “focused on trying to deal with the ultimate problem, which is this growing deficit.”

The Republican rhetoric was ridiculously wrong. We don’t have a trillion-dollar deficit; the deficit isn’t the ultimate problem; and it’s not growing.

Strong growth in individual tax collection drove the U.S. budget deficit to a fresh Obama-era low in fiscal 2015, the Treasury Department said Thursday.

For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 the shortfall was $439 billion, a decrease of 9%, or $44 billion, from last year. The deficit is the smallest of Barack Obama’s presidency and the lowest since 2007 in both dollar terms and as a percentage of gross domestic product.

THE REST:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/deficit-shrinks-1-trillion-obama-era?CID=sm_fb_maddow

[Scurrilous]

1. worst.socialist.ever.

[truebluegreen]

2. I have a bit of a problem with the graph:

Didn't Dimson fight his precious wars off the books? And then Obama added them in? It doesn't look like those little expenditures are included in the early years....

[GummyBearz]

3. It doesn't even matter any more

The federal reserve bank (starting with bush AND continuing with obama) has made it very clear they think the dollar is useless, should be devalued, and printed as fast as possible in order to shore up the balance sheets of wall street banks that gambled with the assets of the entire country.

That is our money policy and has been since 2006. Hell maybe even earlier, you could argue the concept started in 1980 with reaganomics, but the real times the concept was actually put into practice are with the bubbles in 1989, 1999, 2006, and the one currently forming (in stocks and specific real estate markets).

Long story short: Were screwed, and the deficit is the least of our worries.