R
rdean
Guest
From fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the deficit shrank 3.1 percentage points, from 10.1% to 7.0% of GDP.
That's just a bit faster than the 3.0 percentage point deficit improvement from 1995 to '98, but at that point, the economy had everything going for it.
Other occasions when the federal deficit contracted by much more than 1 percentage point a year have coincided with recession. Some examples include 1937, 1960 and 1969.
TARP and the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also make the deficit improvement look better, boosting the fiscal '09 deficit by about $200 billion more than in fiscal '12 (though the initial cost of TARP was overstated).
Still, military spending is now on the decline due to fewer troops in Iraq and Afghanistan; Medicare costs rose 3% last year vs. the average 7% growth in recent years; and after the last year's Budget Control Act, excluding the automatic cuts set to take effect in January, nondefense discretionary spending is already on a path to shrink to 2.7% of GDP, well below the 3.9% average, notes the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
U.S. Deficit Shrinking At Fastest Pace Since WWII, Before Fiscal Cliff - Investors.com
Republicans were wrong about Romney, wrong about economics, wrong about health care, wrong about Iraq, wrong. Just "wrong". Notice the line at the far right. Every line above zero is the deficit shrinking. I wonder who was in office the years when the deficit was shrinking?
Better yet, after the health care bill goes into full effect, only 19 million won't be covered and a third of them are illegal immigrants. The CBO says we will see major savings after 20 years.
This information is coming from "Investor's Business Daily", not some extreme site. But you can bet, because this information isn't showing up on Fox, these USMB right wingers will call it all "lies". At least we all know they have no proof that says otherwise. Except what comes from the Heritage Foundation, a group that is always wrong. There goes that word again: