Federal deficit tops $1 trillion for 3rd straight year

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON — The nation's budget deficit has topped $1 trillion for a third straight year, adding pressure on Congress and the White House to make more progress a long-term plan to shrink the growing imbalance.

The Treasury Department says the deficit through July totals $1.1 trillion. Three years ago, that would have been a record high for the full year.

This year's deficit is on pace to exceed last year's imbalance of $1.29 trillion but fall short of the record $1.41 trillion set in 2009.

Record deficits have prompted President Barack Obama and Congress to create a 12-member committee of lawmakers tasked with reducing the imbalance over the next decade by $1.2 trillion. If the panel splits and cannot agree on a plan, severe across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect automatically.

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7691713.html

[maxsolomon]

1. 2 step process:

1. end both wars
2. let ALL bush tax cuts expire

that'll teach you to try and pull the country out of a ditch, obama!

[MrDiaz]

2. don't you mean

OBAMA'S TAX CUTS?
OBAMA'S WARS?

[maxsolomon]

6. no, i don't.

bush let the AAA membership expire, drove the country into a ditch, handed Obama the keys, and walked off laughing.

[doc03]

4. Letting the tax cuts on expire on people making below

$250,000 would be an economic disaster.

[maxsolomon]

5. then you'd better prepare for disaster

because all or nothing is the only way they'll expire. this congress won't play ball with Obama. period.

and how would it be an "economic disaster", anyway? how much less do you pay now than before Bush screwed the pooch?

a political disaster, i'll concede.

[doc03]

7. I pay a good bit less now and if you suddenly take that much

out of the economy it would put us in another great depression. The only thing keeping us going now is the middle class and government spending, you take that away we are finished. Obama has got to take it to the people and demand an end to the tax cuts on the rich now and let the Republicans argue to let the tax cuts expire on everyone else. Turn it around on them, let them argue a in favor of increasing taxes.

[maxsolomon]

10. it's not sudden

it's a little more each paycheck. i paid it before and i wasn't "finished".

expiration of the bush cuts for all is the only realistic way to raise taxes on the wealthy. the lines are drawn - the GOP will not raise taxes on the rich no matter what how dire the circumstances. they are happy to extend the bush tax cuts in perpetuity, but only with the top rates included. they do not give a happy monkey fuck what 'the people' demand - they are ideologues.

obama can message it till the cows come home, but in the end he and the senate will need to have a spine and reject the GOP's inevitable extension bill.

note that it happens AFTER he will be reinagurated.

[Bandit]

8. Why would you say such a thing?

That is almost exactly what Republicans said in 1993 when Clinton first introduced those taxes. Every Republican said to do that would totally devastate the economy. Clinton got it passed and america went on to experience the "Greatest Economic Expansion in History". I suspect something similar would happen now if we completely did away with the Bush* era tax cuts. I certainly don't buy the argument "You can't raise taxes in a recessiom", that was pretty much proved to be completely false.

[dawg]

3. I'm glad there is a large deficit.

Without the excess spending over current revenues, I doubt we would be able to maintain anything like current levels of employment.

[kentuck]

9. I would guess...

that no matter who was the President, Democrat or Republican, the deficit would have been over $1 trillion dollars per year, beginning with Bush's last deficit of $1.2 trillion. Otherwise, we would be in a deep depression and the deficit would be even higher. Just my guess.