Why Did Budget Deficit Narrow When Economy Grew Under Clinton and Obama?

[TomCADem]

But under Trump, despite the "strong economy" that Trump and Republicans like to brag about, the federal deficit is ballooning? Normally, the deficit should grow during a recession as a revenues fall.

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/03/635071790/despite-strong-economy-federal-deficit-soars

On a muggy morning this week, a group of bankers and investment managers met at The Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C. They got an update from the Treasury Department about government cash flows and, according to minutes of the meeting, the picture wasn't pretty.

Corporate tax receipts are down for the year, while government spending is up. Even with a fast-growing economy, the Treasury Department expects to borrow more than $750 billion to pay its bills during the last six months of this year.

"The federal budget deficit is ballooning, skyrocketing, soaring, whichever way you want to describe it," said longtime fiscal watchdog Stan Collender, who blogs about federal finances as "The Budget Guy."

"You've got a kind of perfect storm here," Collender said. "You've got more spending. You've got less revenue. And the deficit is just getting bigger and bigger, to the point where it will be at least a trillion dollars every year during the Trump administration and beyond."

[PSPS]

1. The $3T looting of the treasury to line the pockets of trump's friends & "donors."

[ooky]

2. I'm not an economist, but, apparently, the strong economy isn't strong enough to produce

the additional tax revenues needed to overcome the Republicans "tax cut and spend" policy?

Who's surprised?

[roamer65]

3. The fiscal crisis will eventually become a currency crisis.

Watch the 10 year Treasury note VERY closely.

[Blue_true]

4. I read a good explanation earlier tonight somewhere.

The writer drew a line between tax policy, trade policy and trade and budget deficits. Wish I had remembered what the article was titled as.

[unblock]

5. Because democrats are fiscally responsible and republicans a fiscally irresponsible.

The right wing and the media constantly repeat the lie that it's the other way around.

But it's obvious. Why would democrats raise taxes if not to actually pay the government's bills? Fiscal responsibility is almost the only reason to raise taxes.

Meanwhile, republicans are hell bent on massive tax cuts, especially for businesses and very rich people, and they're never willing to cut enough to pay for it because they won't touch the military and every other cut costs votes.

[justgamma]

6. Because only the Cons believe that

you can starve enough grandmas to make up for tax cuts for the rich. They also believe that corporations will do the right thing out of the goodness of their hearts if you just give them more money.

They believe in fairy tales.