Does Obama’s $8.6 Trillion Deficit Worry You?
Then Know That $8.6 Trillion Is A Lowball Figure!
If you believe that there is some kind of fiscal equivalence between the Bush era and the Obama era then you need to review the latest report from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office).
The total public debt held at the end of 2009 (George W. Bush’s last budget) was $7.5 trillion, but in its most recent budget report the White House forecasts budget deficits totaling $8.6 trillion over the next decade which would in fact be the good news, because the CBO estimates that even that mind-boggling projection is too low and it estimates that the cumulative deficit from 2010-2020 will most likely be much closer to $9.8 trillion.
Courtesy of CBO - click for larger image.
So What’s A Difference Of $1.2 Trillion Between Friends?
$1.2 trillion is roughly the same as the combined deficits of Bush’s first four years in office, and we’re only talking about the ‘additional’ amount of total deficits in the decade to come.
The $1.2 Trillion Underestimate Is The Good News
And here are the numbers that should really worry you!
$9.8 trillion, which according to the CBO will be the cumulative budget deficit from 2010-2020 based on Obama’s stated plans.
* In other words, we are set to have an average $1 trillion deficit over the next ten years, after never having breached $1 trillion even once, before Bush’s final budget.
$3.8 trillion, will be the additional budget deficits from 2010-2020 if Obama’s plans are enacted, compared to just leaving the budget on auto-pilot, and that’s according to the CBO.
90% – is what the public debt will be as a share of the total economy by 2020 given Obama’s plans, and according the CBO the current figure is 53%.
80% which according to the CBO is the amount by which the White House has overestimated next year’s economic growth.
* The White House forecasts 4.3% in 2011and the CBO forecasts 2.4%
24.1% which represents the average proportion of GDP that the federal government will spend from 2010-2020 given Obama’s plans, and according to CBO.
*The 40-year historical average was 20.7% so we are talking about a federal government in 2020 that will be one-sixth larger than ever before.
And All Of The Above Assumes
That there will be no national emergencies over the next 10 years.
No terrorist attacks.
No natural disasters.
And that we will have a decade of uninterrupted economic growth.
How much would you bet on the above?
And if you wondered why tea parties are becoming so popular then please understand that if the Obama administration’s plans are brought to fruition that we will be looking at, an expansion of government, and a deficit debt that is an order of magnitude far greater than anything we’ve seen before, and that the country could be damaged, perhaps irreparably.
Obama is on record as saying that he doesn’t want the U.S. to be a hegemony, and that might be the one thing at which he succeeds during his 4 years in office!
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