This article explains so well:
The White House has proposed a $3.8-trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011, which begins Oct. 1. What is the projected deficit, and how does that compare with past years?
The deficit is estimated at $1.27 trillion in 2011 -- down from a record $1.56 trillion in the current year. The deficit -- the gap between budget outlays and tax receipts -- was $1.41 trillion in 2009, more than triple the previous high of $458.6 billion in 2008. Except for four years (1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001), the federal government has run a deficit consistently since 1970.
In the longer run, what are the deficit projections?
In the president's budget forecasts, the deficit would fall to $828 billion in fiscal 2012 and dip further to a decade low of $706 billion in 2014.
What's causing the trillion-dollar-plus deficits from fiscal years 2009 to 2011?
Despite widespread perceptions that economic stimulus spending and government bailouts of troubled financial institutions are largely behind the ballooning deficits, those temporary programs actually account for only a fraction of the budget shortfall.
The primary factors are long-standing imbalances between taxes and spending, plus the deep recession that reduced tax revenue and increased outlays for safety net programs such as unemployment insurance and food stamps.
With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spending for national defense has surged about 140% since 2000 -- to $722.1 billion projected in 2010. Government spending for Medicare has gone up even faster in the last decade, to $462.1 billion in 2010. At the same time, personal income taxes were cut earlier in the decade under the George W. Bush administration.
How does Obama's 2011 projected deficit compare? - latimes.com
Dick Cheney said, "deficits don't matter." Yea! Spend and burn!
"In our time, the Republican Party has compiled an impressive history of talking about fiscal responsibility while running up unrivaled deficits and debt. Of the roughly $11 trillion in federal debt accumulated to date, more than 90 percent can be attributed to the tenure of three presidents: Ronald Reagan, who used to complain constantly about runaway spending; George Herbert Walker Bush, reputed to be one of those old-fashioned green-eyeshade Republicans; and his spendthrift son George "Dubya" Bush, whose trillion-dollar war and irresponsible tax cuts accounted for nearly half the entire burden. Only Bill Clinton temporarily reversed the trend with surpluses and started to pay down the debt (by raising rates on the wealthiest taxpayers)."
Joe Conason - Salon.com
The White House has proposed a $3.8-trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011, which begins Oct. 1. What is the projected deficit, and how does that compare with past years?
The deficit is estimated at $1.27 trillion in 2011 -- down from a record $1.56 trillion in the current year. The deficit -- the gap between budget outlays and tax receipts -- was $1.41 trillion in 2009, more than triple the previous high of $458.6 billion in 2008. Except for four years (1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001), the federal government has run a deficit consistently since 1970.
In the longer run, what are the deficit projections?
In the president's budget forecasts, the deficit would fall to $828 billion in fiscal 2012 and dip further to a decade low of $706 billion in 2014.
What's causing the trillion-dollar-plus deficits from fiscal years 2009 to 2011?
Despite widespread perceptions that economic stimulus spending and government bailouts of troubled financial institutions are largely behind the ballooning deficits, those temporary programs actually account for only a fraction of the budget shortfall.
The primary factors are long-standing imbalances between taxes and spending, plus the deep recession that reduced tax revenue and increased outlays for safety net programs such as unemployment insurance and food stamps.
With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, spending for national defense has surged about 140% since 2000 -- to $722.1 billion projected in 2010. Government spending for Medicare has gone up even faster in the last decade, to $462.1 billion in 2010. At the same time, personal income taxes were cut earlier in the decade under the George W. Bush administration.
How does Obama's 2011 projected deficit compare? - latimes.com
Dick Cheney said, "deficits don't matter." Yea! Spend and burn!
"In our time, the Republican Party has compiled an impressive history of talking about fiscal responsibility while running up unrivaled deficits and debt. Of the roughly $11 trillion in federal debt accumulated to date, more than 90 percent can be attributed to the tenure of three presidents: Ronald Reagan, who used to complain constantly about runaway spending; George Herbert Walker Bush, reputed to be one of those old-fashioned green-eyeshade Republicans; and his spendthrift son George "Dubya" Bush, whose trillion-dollar war and irresponsible tax cuts accounted for nearly half the entire burden. Only Bill Clinton temporarily reversed the trend with surpluses and started to pay down the debt (by raising rates on the wealthiest taxpayers)."
Joe Conason - Salon.com
