Why don't Americans realize the deficit is falling?

Since Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, the federal deficit has fallen dramatically. It has dropped as a percentage of the economy:


And it has also fallen in absolute terms.

In fact, the deficit reduction has been so steep that some economists believe that it has been excessive.

But according to polling, most people are entirely unaware of this trend. Recent polling by Pew suggests just 29 percent of Americans believe the deficit was reduced in the last year, including just 12 percent of Republicans.

To put this in context, fewer Republicans believe that the deficit is shrinking than believe in evolution (43 percent) or man-made climate change (24 percent).

And it's not just Republicans who are unaware that the deficit is falling. Just 50 percent of Democrats and 23 percent of Independents believe the deficit is coming down.

So, what's going on here?

I would guess that it’s a combination of two things. First of all, economists, politicians, and pundits are failing to communicate the facts to the public, or deliberately misleading voters. It is easy for reality to get lost in spin and manufactured narratives.

Second — and more importantly — large numbers of people may be confusing the deficit with the national debt. This is actually pretty easy to do.

The deficit (or, if the number is positive, the surplus) is the amount of change in the national debt in one year caused by the difference between spending and tax receipts. The national debt itself is the total stock of debt owed by the federal government. Even though the deficit has decreased dramatically, the national debt itself is still increasing in absolute terms, and has only just begun to fall as a percentage of the economy.

This confusion needs clearing up. While a deficit can be seen as a barometer of administration policy, the debt reflects longer-term trends in government spending and policy. George W. Bush, for example, exploded the deficit by cutting an array of taxes, and taking the nation to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, longer-term factors such as health care costs also contributed — the same factors that are enlarging the debt under President Obama.

While Obama has succeeded in winding down the U.S. military's two biggest foreign entanglements and rolling back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans — thus lowering the deficit — it remains to be seen whether the Affordable Care Act will fulfill its goal of reducing health care costs.

Furthermore, the main economic drawback of a growing debt — interest payments eating up a greater share of tax revenue — is not a great concern right now, as interest rates remain so low and borrowing remains cheap. Indeed, many economists like Paul Krugman and Ben Bernanke say the U.S. should be growing deficits right now, to provide further stimulus to the economy and to put idle resources to work to bring down unemployment.

In any case, the facts on the deficit contradict the widely held notion that the Obama administration is crazily out of control when it comes to the nation's finances. In order to have a rational discussion about the economy, government programs, and the level of government spending, voters need to have a better idea of what the deficit actually is.

http://theweek.com/article/index/254...cit-is-falling

LIAR....


Exposing Barack Obama’s Deceitful Claim to have Cut the “Deficit” in Half; Yes – AFTER more than Tripling the Deficit! – Video 10/12/13




Finally, someone shows the facts about Barack Obama’s repeated claim to have “cut the deficit in half” during his Presidency.
Fox News’ Eric Bolling shows the actual numbers. In Obama’s first year as President, he more than tripled the annual Budget Deficit to $1.4 Trillion. In 2013, it will about half that number – half of his own massive creation! This year’s deficit will still be nearly double the final Budget Deficit under President George W. Bush.
That’s the DEFICIT – meaning the annual Budget Deficit. The DEBT – as in NATIONAL DEBT – has gone from $10.6 Trillion the day Barack Obama took office, to nearly $17 Trillion today.
The bottom line is that it is total deception for Barack Obama to talk about having reduced anything when it comes to deficit or debt.

How do you measure a deficit? You measure what you take in against what you take out (taxes versus spending). You figure what you take out by your budget. This much money for this and this much money for that. The US has had no budget since 2008. How do you measure your money if all you have are continuing resolutions but no budget? You can't. You can promise any amount, pay 10% this year with the other 90% coming due in three years. That debt is not real but it exists. You can't measure your deficit (if we take your word for it) when you don't know ALL of your obligations.

As for Obama's numbers; this is just like a department store that raises all their prices by 20% so they can knock off 10% for a sale. You democrats are so easy to fool.

Great comeback idjits. I especially liked Simple Jacks drooling default to a Fox report.

LMAO!

The U.S. budget deficit will shrink by the end of fiscal 2013 to $642 billion, the smallest shortfall in five years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The agency yesterday reduced its estimate of the likely shortfall by more than $200 billion compared with its February projections. The agency cited stronger-than-expected tax receipts as well as payments to the Treasury by government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as major reasons for the change.
The decline from last year’s $1.1 trillion deficit would mark the first time since 2008 that the gap between taxes and spending slipped to under $1 trillion. It would also postpone the effective deadline for raising the government’s debt ceiling to avoid default until as late as November, the agency said.

Yeah, it's all bullshit. Just ask the Teawipes! They've been praying for failure and Jayzuz just ain't deliverin!

This is going to be a FUN thread. Lets go BITCHES.

The deficit decreasing in real terms is a good thing, regardless of which party is in power. I hope the trend continues.

Life's good...

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/08/def...g-from-way-up/

Lets finish this fucker quickly. I notice the first graph uses percentages rather than real numbers....why?

In 2008 the deficit was $407 billion. In 2009 the deficit was $1.4 trillion and like the first graph says 9.9 percent of GDP. That same year tax revenue fell by $420 billion or 17%. So Obama spent more money than George Bush even though there was less money to spend. Obama tripled the deficit. Last year the deficit is projected to be $608 billion or 50% higher than the Bush deficit (2008) and Bush was fighting two wars! To say the deficit is smaller now is like celebrating your weight loss when you ballooned to 300 lbs from 220 and you're now down to 280. You haven't really accomplished anything other than fail to get back to where you were. This is the best that Obama can do? Fail to do what Bush did...again. How many times have we heard the phrase, "this is the lowest (highest) that things have been since 2008?" The lowest unemployment has been since the Bush years. The lowest the deficit has been since the Bush years. The most respected the country has been since the Bush years. Obama has spent nearly five years getting back to where Bush was!

http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/0...ouble-2007.htm
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aA8lChe4zUQU
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/30/news...ury/index.html

Hey! This is great news BigTurd ......


....we don't need "Obamacare" after all to reduce spending ....


... to cut the deficit .............................it's being reduced without!

Fucking Medicare leech.

The deficit is falling because Obama raised taxes which he said he would not and the sequester that stopped spending increases. It is a good thing we have some conservatives in the House fighting for the survival of this nation.

The deficit is falling because Obama raised taxes on the 1% wealthiest Americans, because they can best afford it. Originally Posted by The2Dogs

Fixed it for you!

The deficit is falling because Obama raised taxes which he said he would not and the sequester that stopped spending increases. It is a good thing we have some conservatives in the House fighting for the survival of this nation. Originally Posted by The2Dogs

Uh, didn't you boys say that it was Obama's sequester?