Surprise! 2011 deficit jumps up 15% in first six months
posted at 10:55 am on April 13, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
The big question for the White House on the news that the deficit shot up by 15.7% over FY2010′s first six months will be this: How can we show we inherited this deficit?
The US budget deficit shot up 15.7 percent in the first six months of fiscal 2011, the Treasury Department said Wednesday as political knives were being sharpened for a new budget battle.
The Treasury reported a deficit of $829 billion for the October-March period, compared with $717 billion a year earlier, as revenue rose a sluggish 6.9 percent as the economic recovery slowly gained pace.
There is one way to sidestep the obvious implications — claim that the deficit number is somehow not real:
The Treasury argued that the pace of increase in the deficit was deceptive because of large one-off reductions in expenditures made during the first half of fiscal 2010, compared with previous and subsequent periods.
Those included a $115 billion reduction in funds spent on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) — the financial institution bailout program — in March 2010.
Agence France Presse isn’t exactly buying it. They note that spending increased across most sectors of the government, including Defense, Social Security, and health care spending. In fact, Social Security tipped over into monthly deficits last year, which means that SSA has to cash in its Treasury bonds in order to meet benefit obligations. Since Treasury doesn’t actually have money in the safe, we have to sell more bonds — in other words, borrow — to pay off the bonds cashed in by SSA. That also adds to the deficit and to the debt service, which not surprisingly also sharply rose.
When Obama and the Democratic Congress first ran a trillion-dollar deficit in FY2009, Obama claimed that he’d “inherited” the deficit, even though the budget that created it was passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by Obama himself in March 2009, after Democrats played keep-away from George Bush through continuing resolutions. When the deficit got deeper in FY2010, Obama claimed it was because he had inherited an unprecedented financial crisis, although he was certainly in Washington when it happened and wasn’t a big surprise. (It was in all of the papers. I checked.)
So now that we have deficits still going up, how will Obama shift the blame this time?
Blowback
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Brother can you spare a trillion…???
PatriotRider on April 13, 2011 at 10:57 AM
The new line: PBHO inherited the debt inheritance, he will never ever never ever admit to anything negative being his fault or responsibility.
Bishop on April 13, 2011 at 11:00 AM
Ed, lets try to stay on message, shall we? 2011 is small potatoes, and not the hill to die on. 2012 is where we draw the line. Remember?
thanks,
–Speaker Cryin John
james23 on April 13, 2011 at 11:04 AM
We need someone with integrity, courage and determination in the White House – not someone with his own portable vanity kit.
AubieJon on April 13, 2011 at 11:05 AM
I think history will show the George W. Bush was the most powerful ex-president to have ever held the White House.
There is nothing, NOTHING, that happened in the country from his time forward that he could not taint.
Lily on April 13, 2011 at 11:07 AM
BP and Evil Oil is Responsible! (somehow)
michaelo on April 13, 2011 at 11:08 AM
It’s all Bush’s fault…wait…what?
SPGuy on April 13, 2011 at 11:09 AM
Everybody is so busy blaming, nobody has the guts to stand up and do something to fix it.
Boehner not only failed, but he lied in the process.
fossten on April 13, 2011 at 11:10 AM
America will not survive 8 years of this man.
Save your pennies and get ready to support the conservative candidate in 2012 doe POTUS.
NickDeringer on April 13, 2011 at 11:11 AM
We can neither tolerate our deficiencies, nor the remedies for them.
lorien1973 on April 13, 2011 at 11:14 AM
He’s going to start blaming it on the Republican who’s going to replace him. That’s what Winning the Future really means.
Rocks on April 13, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Spot on rocks :)
cmsinaz on April 13, 2011 at 11:21 AM
Hell blame boehner and the gop congress somehow that is ‘why you have to re-elect me to stop the evil gop house’
cmsinaz on April 13, 2011 at 11:23 AM
If I have a deficit of 800 bucks I am in trouble, yet the government has an 800 billion deficit in 6 months, and the libs act like it business as usual.
kam582 on April 13, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Kool-aid drinkers will still believe the crap he will spew….
cmsinaz on April 13, 2011 at 11:25 AM
He and the Dems are still blaming it on Bush. I guess their logic goes something like this: They inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit in 2009 and every year since then that amount is predetermined so they’re in no way responsible.
I know, it makes no sense to an actual thinking person, but that’s the best I could come up with.
Doughboy on April 13, 2011 at 11:27 AM
Here are eight charts that bho, team, and the d’s are responsible for! They will make you sick. We have got to stop bho and stat!
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/04/8-charts-that-will-blow-your-mind.html
L
letget on April 13, 2011 at 11:27 AM
If you tax all income over $1 million, if nothing else changes, this would yield $850 billion per year. The deficit is $1400 billion this year. What about the other $550 billion for this year ?
… and who thinks there will be anything like that $850 billion the second year ? Only a fool.
J_Crater on April 13, 2011 at 11:30 AM
Good thing the GOP Congress is taking the deficit so seriously with their whopping $5 billion in cuts. Problem solved!
Clark1 on April 13, 2011 at 11:31 AM
“These things take time” was not good enough for W but seems to ne ok for dear leader….guaranteed he will day that
cmsinaz on April 13, 2011 at 11:31 AM
Obama will claim his spending was to “fix” what Bush’s deficit caused. “Two wars, tax cuts for the rich caused the economy to tank…” Now he’ll flip-flop again on taxing the rich while proposing more accounting gimmicks and Defense cuts. On social security he’ll want to raise the tax and use means testing for benefits turning it entirely into a welfare program. Barry song & dance in a nutshell.
cartooner on April 13, 2011 at 11:34 AM
Dang Android :(
cmsinaz on April 13, 2011 at 11:34 AM
Social Security’s move from surpluses to deficits last year was an ominous event. It’s the harbinger of a trend that will play out with catastrophic consequeces for the federal budget as the masses of retiring Baby Boomers increase year after year.
Cicero43 on April 13, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Yepper cartooner
cmsinaz on April 13, 2011 at 11:36 AM
It’s Bush’s fault he put us there with his illegal wars.
/lib
Brat4life on April 13, 2011 at 11:41 AM
Holy cr@p batman!!!!! Those charts are absolutely disgusting, despicable, scarey, etc.! This has got to stop!!! :-(
sicoit on April 13, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Easy. Tax all income over $1M at 200%.
angryed on April 13, 2011 at 11:46 AM
Nick: From where I sit, I haven’t seen a single conservative candidate for the Presidency since… what, Reagan?
Scott H on April 13, 2011 at 11:47 AM
“The Evil Rich” – there always a good target…
Mr_Magoo on April 13, 2011 at 11:48 AM
I saw the / tag but you can’t dismiss bush’s responsibility in this. I no more want to return to bushism than I want to continue with Obamaism. both are failed economic models.
unseen on April 13, 2011 at 11:59 AM
When SS becomes a means tested welfare program, it will be relatively easy to get around it. Move your investments offshore. You’re poor, you get SS. I have a feeling the list of “rich” retirees will be very short in 20 years.
angryed on April 13, 2011 at 12:00 PM
It won’t survive 4 years with Boehner Republicans at the wheel, either. give us a shout when a Conservative party forms to run a candidate in 12.
james23 on April 13, 2011 at 12:00 PM
TILT!
Ward Cleaver on April 13, 2011 at 12:07 PM
Revenue (taxes) rose at a “sluggish” 6.9%? If the current budget is about $3.6 trillion and the projected deficit is about $1.6 trillion, then “revenue” should be about $2 trillion a year, or $1 trillion in 6 months, which would translate to about a $70 billion increase in “revenue” between Oct 09-March 10 and Oct 10-March 11.
So, despite a $70 billion revenue increase, the deficit increased by $112 billion, meaning that spending increased by $182 billion per 6 months, or about $360 billion per year.
This represents about a 10% INCREASE IN SPENDING in one year !!! And Democrats are whining over cutting $38 billion, or barely 1% of the total budget?
How many hard-working Americans got 10% pay raises last year during the recession? The silence is deafening!!! Me neither! So what has the Government ever done to deserve a 10% raise?
Do the math, and it’s obvious we need a machete, not a scalpel, or the biggest rip-roarin’ chainsaw ever built.
Steve Z on April 13, 2011 at 12:15 PM
For the 33% who are Obamabots, “It’s all Bush’s fault!” will still work. For everyone else, “It’s all the fault of those “obstructionist” Republicans over the last 2 years!”
See? If we’d all towed Pelosi’s line for those 2 years, we’d all be in Nirvana now.
GarandFan on April 13, 2011 at 12:19 PM
Hey I got an Idea, let’s cut $8 billion from the 2011 budget, and come up with $30 billion in budgeting gimmicks and tell the American people we kept our campaign pldge to cut $100 billion.
paulsur on April 13, 2011 at 12:56 PM
The only chart you need to watch is this one. It is the price of the 30 year treasury bond and it is falling, which means interest rates are rising. We adopt Ryan’s plan and still have serious trouble if interest rates rise and financing our debt becomes more expensive.
We can’t forget that we have incredibly bad fiscal AND monetary policies right now. The Fed is deliberately debasing the currency in the hope that inflation will take care of our debts. It really is madness.
Bill C on April 13, 2011 at 2:36 PM