Bush vs Obama Deficits: In pictures.

by Bruce Webb

Reader BuffPilot has been asking Angry Bear for awhile now to post the following graph

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/
If you follow the link you will see that Heritage updated it with new CBO and OMB data this year. That is below the fold.


http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/past-deficits-vs-obamas-deficits-in-pictures/

Which I will amplify with the actual CBO Table

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/Chapter1.shtml

I am not sure what the take away here is. A year ago CBO was more pessimistic than OMB about the years after 2012, where OMB stay deficits stabilizing at a fairly level percentage of GDP, CBO saw much sharper increases. This year that seems to have flipped flopped some with both OMB and CBO seeing deficits stabilizing through 2018, with CBO seeing smaller deficits than projected the year before and the White House OMB seeing them somewhat higher. probably because CBO is working off current law that would have middle class tax cuts expire, while OMB is counting on preserving them for people making under $250,000. Anyway if you just take CBO scoring things are moving in the right direction policy-wise.

Anyway plenty for people to chew on. Consider this a budget and deficit open thread.