Federal deficit politics
For awhile the yelling in media was about the federal deficit and was to doom us all. Now voices are muted on the deficit. Here is why:
(hat tip Spencer)
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
and this, too: Calculated Risk: CBO Projection: Budget Deficit to be below 3% of GDP for next four years
Bill has a chart showing that the deficit projections as a percent of GDP will be lower than under Reagan
This deficit reduction has been done without the cooperation of the republicans. Just think what could have been done if they had helped.
From what I’ve learned (or thought I learned) at this site and others, deficit reduction under Obama has been too fast for our long-term good and we should have been employing people on badly-needed infrastructure projects to to maintain a better employed-workers-to-population ratio. Due to Obama’s “pivot to deficit reduction” and due to the sequester (for which the Republicans are primarily responsible), that didn’t happen.
So while I think it was the wrong policy, I think the Republicans do deserve some credit (or in my case, blame) for the deficit reduction. I agree the Republicans have been nearly impossible to work with, however.