Last week, Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei at Politico reported that the White House planned on making deficit reduction a centerpiece of the next State of the Union address. Allen and Vandehei called the decision “practical” saying that “Obama has spent more money on new programs in nine months than Bill Clinton did in eight years, pushing the annual deficit to $1.4 trillion. This leaves little room for big spending initiatives.” This fact is taken completely out of the context of the recession. The title of the article refers to the White House's “spending binge.” The deficits, tax cuts, and spending of the previous administration are ignored entirely.

The move could buy the Treasury Department time before it hits the so-called debt ceiling, which limits the amount of money the U.S. can borrow. Already, some members of Congress have said they won't approve an increase in the $12.1 trillion debt cap unless efforts to reduce the deficit are included. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat who is proposing a bipartisan commission, along with Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), to examine taxes, said he won't vote for raising the debt limit unless Congress and the administration start talking about cutting spending and increasing taxes.

Wars reduce the GDP, destroy jobs, reduce productively, and increase the trade deficit! If wars are 'bad' for the economy, then how are they sold so easily? The quick response: they are sold with focus group tested bullshit!

In theory, a near worthless dollar is great for American manufacturers, American jobs. Lower costs for American goods means US exports should rise, reducing our trade deficit and helping pay off the national debt! But, in every GOP regime since Richard Nixon, US manufacturing and US jobs have declined.

The US federal budget deficit tripled to about $1.4 trillion for fiscal year 2009 in the midst of the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, the office that keeps track of spending for Congress said Wednesday. The figure represented about 9.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the highest percentage since 1945, the Congressional Budget Office said in a statement.

Watching the health care debate unfold these days is a little like watching scenes from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" — the ones showing a collage of strung-out, deranged or otherwise incapacitated patients rotting away in a squalid psychiatric ward. As the insurance industry's Nurse Ratched lurks in the background, congressional Democrats cower in the corner, fearing the phantom menace of their own shadows. Standing next to the window, suicidal Republican leaders rant about "death panels" and threaten to splatter their electoral prospects onto the pavement below. Nearby, White House officials struggle with multiple-personality ailments as they mumble contradictory statements about the public option. Meanwhile, tea party protesters lie on the floor in a fetal position, soiling their hospital diapers as they throw incoherent tantrums about everything from socialism to communism to czarism to Nazism. And, not surprisingly, Washington reporters just stare off into the distance, having been long ago lobotomized in the wake of their Watergate heyday.

Much has been said about “the deficit” without clearly identifying exactly what is being discussed. There are TWO kinds of federal deficits. One is totally within the control of our Federal Government to manage, but the other is an untamed beast that is permitted to run loose and is potentially lethal to our society. Unfortunately, public attention is riveted on the easily controllable deficit, while the extremely dangerous one continues out of control, ignoring the perfectly reasonable techniques that could eliminate its threat.

$2,000,000,000,000. That’s the amount by which the Obama administration raised its 10-year estimate of the nation’s budget deficit from the $7 trillion it guessed only a few months ago, a 30% error. It seems that expenses are higher than estimated — up 24% this year, the largest increase since the height of the Korean war — and revenues are lower. There’s worse. The new estimate assumes that Medicare and Medicaid (government healthcare) spending will be cut by $622 billion, even though Congress has made it known that it is reluctant to make any such cut. Then there is the $600 billion in revenue included for the sale of emission permits, despite the fact that The House of Representatives has given away so many permits gratis that the programme will produce at most $450 billion. Those two items alone come to almost another $1 trillion in red ink. Throw in another $1 trillion for Obamacare, recognise the irrational exuberance of Obama’s economic and revenue projections, and it is no surprise that senior economist Bill Gale, at the liberal Brookings Institution, says that the deficit will exceed $10 trillion over the next decade, a figure he finds “deeply alarming”. So do voters, who now rate the deficit as the nation’s No 1 problem.

Boy, to hear many Republicans tell it they have been the watchdogs of fiscal responsibility. They have recently begun squawking about deficits and spending. They try to say our country is spending too much and we cannot afford Universal Healthcare. Of course, they conviently leave out the facts about why our deficit is where it is right now.

The largest drain on this economy is the annual deficit with China. .... snip.... These indicators have led to the belief that the economy is recovering from the crisis which began in December 2007. Unfortunately that is not the case. As economist Professor Peter Morici explained to the New America Foundation in June, our underlying economic instability has not been addressed.

It should not be surprising that the vision of the Wall Street seers seem to be far from reality. After all, their crystal balls could not see the $8tn housing bubble, the collapse of which has wrecked the economy. In fact, the self-proclaimed seers are using their visions to try to discourage the public from supporting policies that the seers don't like. These people want to see cutbacks in Social Security, Medicare and other social programmes. They are more concerned that higher deficits could mean higher taxes on the wealthy at some point in the future than they are about the tens of millions of unemployed or under-employed today. In short, those who want fantastic stories about the unknowable would be much better off visiting the people who promise to communicate with the dead than listening to the Wall Street spokespeople. They will learn more and be associating with people of greater integrity.

Senator Mitch McConnell sir, when you say we have the finest Health Care system in the world I have to wonder who the we are. Are you pregnant or do you have a mouse in your pocket? Or could the we be you and Elaine. After all sir you and Elaine do have very good Health Care plans, paid for by folks like me. Senator Mitch McConnell sir, are the health Care expenditures for you, Elaine, your senator friends, their spouses and children Revenue Neutral, or Deficit Neutral, or is Revenue Neutral, or Deficit Neutral something that applies only to folks like us that are funding your socially subsidized health care plan? Senator Mitch McConnell sir, I realize this is a touchy subject, but do you have Alzheimer's or have you forgot all of the Non Revenue Neutral, or Non Deficit Neutral spending you supported while your pal George Bush Was President?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that thousands of state employees must be laid off and billions of dollars must be slashed from the budget to deal with a deficit that tops $15 billion and could widen again within days.

On Monday, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget released a revised budget deficit prediction for the current fiscal year showing that the U.S. will need to borrow 46 cents for every dollar spent until Sept. 30, when the current fiscal year ends.

After the German conservatives were pretty eager in the past days to proclaim new tax cuts, new estimates numbered the dropouts in tax income for Germany at 50bio€ (350 bio € till 2013 for lower wages for the crisis). The estimates were published yesterday. So, the only thing Merkel can do is to hit the brakes. But its an embarassing move after she proclaimed tax cuts 3 days ago.

The White House on Monday increased its forecast for the U.S. budget deficit for this year by $89 billion, reflecting the recession, a raft of new unemployment claims and corporate bailouts. A fresh estimate of the deficit showed it coming in at $1.84 trillion -- representing a massive 12.9 percent of gross domestic product -- in the current 2009 fiscal year that ends on September 30. A prior White House forecast released in February projected a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of GDP.

China, Japan, Mexico and Canada should all be forced to pay for the privilege of accessing the world’s most lucrative market. Under our current system anyone and everyone is given free and unrestricted entry.

This country needs manufacturing if it hopes to survive and flourish.....

"The U.S. trade deficit shrank by 28.3 percent in February to its smallest since November 1999 as imports tumbled and exports managed to grow slightly in the face of shrinking global demand, a U.S. government report showed on Thursday."

To make sure Republicans act like Republicans, vote Democrat.