Some very good news for the Administration. It's just awful news for repubs

[cali]

Federal deficit shrinks at surprising rate

It's on track to fall below where it was when Obama took office, and the long-term debt is more stable, the Congressional Budget Office says. The numbers may bolster the president's stance in budget battles with Republicans.

WASHINGTON — The federal deficit is shrinking more quickly than expected, and the government's long-term debt has largely stabilized for the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a report that could strengthen the Obama administration's hand in the budget battles with congressional Republicans.

The budget office continues to say the federal government faces a long-range budget problem — mostly caused by the costs of an aging population — but its new forecast pushes the crunch point for that problem off into a considerably more distant future: well after the 2020 presidential election.

The deficit projection for this year — $642 billion — is almost 25% less than the deficit the budget office had forecast as recently as February. At the new level, the annual deficit would be back to where it was before President Obama took office. It would continue to fall for the rest of Obama's tenure, the budget office now projects. By contrast, the deficit for fiscal year 2012 came in at just over $1 trillion.

Three major factors account for most of the long-term improvement: a better economy, a continued slowdown in the rate of medical inflation — which reduces the cost of Medicare and Medicaid — and higher taxes that Congress approved as part of the "fiscal cliff" deal in January, the budget office said.

<snip>

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deficit-shrinking-20130515,0,6831897.story

[Atman]

1. I wish I could agree with you.

But the ONLY thing we will hear about is Benghazi, IRS and the AP. The GOP media will make sure of it.

[cali]

2. you may be right in the short run, but I suspect that this

news will have an impact in Congress and ultimately will resonate with the public.

[Cosmocat]

5. the republicans will

do what they do - keep working at the fringes on things like Benghazi or whatever, until they find something that they get can get more traction on.

Clinton - they spent 10s of millions of dollars digging around to find ANYTHING. I mean, they tried to make a big deal out of Hillary getting a hair cut, investigated the pet cat's xmas card list.

They just never stopped until they got the dress ...

They did all that because they could not blovate about the economy/deficit.

They just will scream about whatever pops up at any given moment until something sinks.

This isn't a boom economy, it is only a stabilization of debt.

The half wits in this country could not appreciate the booming economy of the 90s enough to make the obvious choice in 99, they had to elect "they guy you would have a beer with" to avoid hiring the intelligent and capable guy.

People won't even register that they are getting the debt under control.

They just will be led around by their noses by the Rs until some "scandal" bites.

[watoos]

9. No, Atman is right

Did you watch cable news yesterday. The corporate-controlled MSM, and that includes msnbc, controls the narrative. Thank god for sites like DU. Huff Post, AOL, is morphing slowly.

[cali]

17. No, I don't ever watch the cable news sites

but we'll just have to see how this effects what transpires in Congress

[Atman]

24. The trouble is, MOST of America watches very little news.

And the news they DO watch is this corporate GOP crap. So, the ONLY message they hear, for the five minutes they see news on the TV while waiting for their oil to be changed, is the GOP narrative. The GOP knows this. They play this like a fine violin. The Democrats never seem to catch on that WE are the violin being played, and America always hears that we are fucking things up, not that the GOP is playing with us.

[graham4anything]

27. 80-20. American's know crap and love President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Which is why Hillary will win 120 million popular votes and 485 electoral votes

and every single day, it might lead to 10 million more votes in 2016

[bluestate10]

37. People may not watch news, but they know when the economy is getting better.

They feel it in their wallets. The job of democrats through the 2014 midterms is to pin republican obstructionism squarely on republicans loud and clear, democrats can't be shrinking voices.

[JayhawkSD]

22. Let's just try focusing on it being good for the country.

We're all Obama fans here right? Didn't he once say something about, "no red America and no Blue America," and that there's "just America," in a few of his speeches? Or were those just words?

I know, I'm going to get admonished for saying that there's nothing wrong with taking pleasure in what's good for Democrats, and that there's nothing wrong with taking pleasure in Republicans having their asses kicked. But there is.

A nation divided cannot stand.

We criticize Republicans for hating Obama, and then we hate Republicans. We hate Republicans with all of the same venom, hate and irrationality that they hate Obama. We take as much pleasure in insulting Republicans as they take in insulting Obama. We work as hard to be sure that nothing they want to do can succeed as they work to be sure that nothing Obama wants to do can succeed.

So a falling deficit is great, not because it benefits the nation, but because "it's awful for Republicans."

A nation divided cannot stand.

Edit: sorry, this was intended to be a reply to the original post. Not sure how it became a reply to a reply. Didn't scroll far enough I guess.

[Blue_Tires]

25. And of course;

in the past when Obama was trying to get other things done, the repubs screamed "DEFICIT! DEFICIT! DEFICIT!" for weeks on end...

[Berlum]

3. "Nothing to see here. Move along." - RepubliWankers & Allied Corporate Media (R)

[curlyred]

4. Front page of the Denver Post all IRS, AP, and Benghazi

While this was buried in the back pages.

[Aldo Leopold]

12. Same here...

it was on the absolute last page of our paper, a single column.

[Blue_Tires]

26. Don't look at the front of this morning's USA Today....

[curlyred]

35. This is just about the last freaking straw with me and the Denver Post

If they didn't have such good local coverage I would've cancelled this tea party rag long ago.

[eShirl]

6. so THAT's why the Republicans are clanking all the pots & pans they can get their hands on now

lalalalalalalaa I can't hear you lalalalalalala

[Shankapotomus]

15. +1 eom

[byeya]

7. And the faster the economy grows, the faster the debt will shrink. This is positive for working

people and is tangible. All the cheerleading for manufactured outrages against the administration can't compete with the improvement felt by wage earners, if indeed the economic good news can filter down to them. It should translate into more jobs at a higher wage: This can be stopped however, and it's up to 0bama to see that the wage earners are first in line to receive more pay and steadier work.

[watoos]

10. Actually, I believe we need a budget surplus for the debt to shrink. But that debt clock

that pugs keep showing is running slower.

[Orrex]

8. I have a question about that:

What makes us think that Republicans won't simply be permitted to credit this shrinking deficit to austerity and the Bush tax cuts, the way they always do?

[watoos]

11. They can't use the Bush tax cuts

because that is a loss of revenue, but they can use the sequester, because that is spending cuts. Frank Luntz and the boys will come up with something that the corporate-controlled MSM will promote, and the sheep will follow along.

[JaneyVee]

13. The CBO also said that Republican spending cuts are harming the economy.

http://www.politicususa.com/republicans-wrong-cbo-finds-spending-cuts-reduce-debt.html

[Orrex]

20. Yeah, sadly.

Their usual pitch seems to be that the lower taxes leads to economic growth, yielding to greater revenue overall. Sure, it's bullshit, but they've been singing that song for more than 30 years.

[City Lights]

19. That was my first thought.

No matter what happens, if it's good news, the republicans will figure out a way to take credit for it, and the corporate media will do all they can to help them. On the other hand, if it's bad news, the republicans always figure out a way to blame the Democrats, and the corporate media does all they can to help them get that message out to the masses.

Their motto should be, "Heads we win; tails they lose."

[Orrex]

21. I've repeated a similar mantra for decades:

"The Whitehouse has no control over the economy unless the economy is strong and the President is a Democrat or the economy is weak and the President is a Republican."

[iemitsu]

14. How can the budget office blame the projected budget deficits mostly

on an aging population when we spend so much on defense? If we coujld just curb our appetite for war the budget would look fine.

[madokie]

16. I think that a lot of the reasons for the recent bad press

is to get this and the good news, to those who follow it, of the dow jones index off our front pages.
Republicons have it figured out how to filter our *news* in more ways than simply their buying up the news outlets.
As proof of this I offer the opposite, Warren Buffet bought our local paper a few weeks back and I can see a difference in their reporting so to me that tells me who owns the paper, or news outlet, as the case might be matters

[reformist2]

18. Sorry, but this is just a result of housing bubble economics.

Is it good news? I guess so. Is it sustainable? I'm not so sure...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022845969

[Botany]

23. NY Times U.S. Budget Deficit Shrinks Far Faster Than Expected

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/cbo-cuts-2013-deficit-estimate-by-24-percent.html

Quick look over @ Benghazi!

[graham4anything]

28. Why isn't this phrased "good news for us and USA?" Because it is good news for me & USA

[cali]

30. because I fucking felt like putting up this title.

and if you don't like it, that's an added benefit.

[graham4anything]

31. I don't understand. I am baffled

Who doesn't want good forward things to happen to America?

even when Nixon was in office, people who were democratic party supporters applauded the good things.

Ted Kennedy applauded those compromises with Reagan that Teddy got.

Who wouldn't applaud good news?

[Atman]

38. Wow. Alert-worthy...

...if it were not an exchange between Cali and Graham. Well played, Cali.

[Sunlei]

29. very good news,the much better management, computerising Obama started pays off bigtime.

stop the expensive wars, get rid of billions in fraud medicare,medicade, ss...adds up to savings for America.

[Botany]

33. The stimulus worked and the deficit is going down 2 nasty facts for the right.

The economy was much worse the he was told when the President took office
and the deficit was bigger then he was led to believe too. The President has
done a great job despite the non stop obstructionism by the republicans.

BTW to all lurkers and freepers please double check these facts.

[Sunlei]

34. excellent chart, thanks :) I'm even happy Obama got the BLM off their old paper maps system finally!

knew when we noticed Obama was a blackberry man..washingtondc was in for a HUGE needed computer upgrade.

Nothing uncovers waste,fraud-saves our federal money and time- faster than a computer!

[Sheepshank]

32. The needs bookmarking....

I know a couple of freepers that will enjoy (not) reading this. lol

[bluestate10]

36. You know. I read the serial posts of the big Obama bashes here on DU. One posting incessantly

about an investigation of the AP after that organization put the lives of American citizens at risk. Neither of the big Obama and Holder bashers or their confederates mentioned nary a dribble of a word about a budget deficit which was once 1.5 fucking trillion dollars being reduced to just under 700 billion, all that progress with NO fucking help from republicans. People, be careful about who you put your faith in, some so called progressives may be wolves in sheep clothing.