How’s that spending reduction going?
posted at 8:30 am on October 8, 2011 by Jazz Shaw
We still have a long way to go in sorting out the pressing issues facing the nation, and we don’t all agree on the solutions. Foreign policy questions abound, our energy policy is a mess and we still need to bring down those unemployment numbers. But at least there’s one thing we’ve managed to nail down, and that’s spending. Everyone figured out that we have to cut costs and stop running up the deficit, leading us to take quick, substantive action. So… how’s that working out for you? According to the latest CBO report… meh.
CBO: Deficit is on track to be $1.3 trillion
The Congressional Budget Office on Friday said that the federal budget deficit is on track to be $1.3 trillion this year, $14 billion more than the deficit CBO predicted in August.
Despite all the wrangling in the spring between Republicans and Democrats about budget cuts, 2011 saw spending outlays increase by 4.2 percent compared to 2010. This included a 1 percent increase in defense spending and 1 percent increase in Medicaid spending.
Boy, that super committee better come out with a real humdinger, huh?
The usual targets for bloated costs are present once again, with Medicare and Social Security costs rising by 4%. (As if we needed another reminder about entitlement reform.) We’ve had a lot of talk over the last year, but this latest compilation demonstrates that talk is all it was for the most part. The surprising figure in here – at least for some – is the 1% growth in defense spending. I’d assumed, after stupidly listening to our politicians again, that we were already on track to be cutting costs there. Well… maybe next year.
The report goes on to note that this deficit is 8.6 percent of the economy, which puts 2011 on track to be the third highest debt rate in that category since World War 2. The monthly deficit for September, ($64 billion) is nearly $30B higher than in the same period for last year. For a nation that’s been focused on a battle to cut costs for more than a year, this doesn’t really look much like progress to me.
Blowback
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It’s only 450 days till Obama gets thrown out of office. That does’t seem like such a long time.
Tommy_G on October 8, 2011 at 8:39 AM
If Obama doesn’t get an honorary Iranian or Cuban citizenship out of this, he got robbed.
RBMN on October 8, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Not to worry, it will look so much better when they slash the Defense Department down to nothing.
Cindy Munford on October 8, 2011 at 9:03 AM
They aren’t interested in progress but on how long you can tread water.
Cindy Munford on October 8, 2011 at 9:04 AM
I think the “deficit reduction” just got a whole lot harder — probably impossible — since President Obama has unleashed his “anti-austerity” mobs. Any efforts now to trim the budget will be met with riots. And it isn’t conspiracy theory to say this has been Obama’s plan all along. What we have to do to get this country back on track financially will never occur. If we get a GOP Congress and White House in 2012, they’ll be trying to cut the runaway spending at the same time they’ll be needing to call out the national guard in America’s cities. Obama destroyed America’s economic engine — the middle class — and has co-opted the very people he purposefully destroyed into his mob, has them out in the streets begging for government checks and calling for the heads of the producers, while the folks in the White House laugh their asses off at how easy it all was.
Rational Thought on October 8, 2011 at 9:04 AM
Nope.
Been saying for a long time now that the time for talk and voting is over. People still don’t want to discuss it yet though.
Really, shouldn’t we stop bleating like stupid sheep about this crap until we’re prepared to actually do something about it beyond the same predictable no-results crap we’ve been doing for years?
Midas on October 8, 2011 at 9:12 AM
The country is focused on cutting cost – the politicians in D.C. in both parties not so much.
Dr Evil on October 8, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Kyle Reese: You still don’t get it, do you? He’ll SPEND it! That’s what he does! That’s ALL he does! You can’t stop him! He’ll wade through you, reach down yer wallet and pull her f**kin’ money out! – dialog from The Spendinator
locomotivebreath1901 on October 8, 2011 at 9:20 AM
But the media kept reporting on all of those brutal cuts the Republicans were forcing president Obama into during those mean ol’ debt ceiling debates.
I guess that was all a bunch of bullsh!t.
forest on October 8, 2011 at 9:20 AM
Controversial and Unconstitutional Obamacare ought to be a great help there – in pushing the Cloward Piven bus over the cliff that is.
Chip on October 8, 2011 at 9:21 AM
We need to give more thought to who holds our pocketbooks/wallets.
Cindy Munford on October 8, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Is the 1% growth in defense spending due to Obama unilaterally getting us into Libya?
djaymick on October 8, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Hey, that’s pretty good.
:)
listens2glenn on October 8, 2011 at 9:38 AM
Hey, man. That thing’s only gonna last a couple of weeks.
Rational Thought on October 8, 2011 at 9:38 AM
Time limited.
Scope limited.
Vision limited.
Rinse… Repeat
Jazz Shaw on October 8, 2011 at 9:41 AM
This entire “Occupy[fill in the blank]” movement is solidly based on denial. It’s denial that “debt” is a problem for the country.
The premier model for this denial is our POTUS. After weeks of political wrangling over “a down payment of the debt,” he comes back with a new program of spending with a price tag over a year or two roughly half the size of the ten year savings. No matter whether there are new taxes or not, this just isn’t serious. He just wants to “ignore away” the debt.
Meanwhile, these demonstrations seem to be based mostly on students with a debt burden who want to ignore what they had signed up for. Why should they take responsibility when the POTUS doesn’t take responsibility for his spending.
The elephant in the room is that the target of the demonstrations, the banks, while getting capitalization through “bridge loans” from the government, had to pay back the money they got from the government, while many of the recipients of the largesse of TARP and the “stimulus” (i.e the unions) are rushing to join the demonstrators.
They seem to believe that they can “let the good times roll” again if they can just make somebody else (“the rich”) pay for their last binge.
This entire exercise shows that there are few, if any, grown-ups in the room of our “Occupy”-ers, and the POTUS isn’t one of them.
J_Crater on October 8, 2011 at 9:58 AM
i am scared to think of the damage he can still do in that period of time.
trailortrash on October 8, 2011 at 10:20 AM
I think we’ve gone past the point of no return. In less than 5 years we went from being concerned at seeing a $300 billion dollar deficit to now routinely running almost a trillion and a half dollar budget. And any cuts to this monstrosity is roundly condemned by a large portion as a draconian abuse of the people. The iceberg is just ahead and there is no way to turn this leviathan of a ship.
tommyboy on October 8, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Hey, where’d that chart in the picture come from? I want that!
KMC1 on October 8, 2011 at 10:28 AM
I weep for my children.
Jvette on October 8, 2011 at 10:33 AM
Jazz, you miss the one essential dishonest element in all of the spending reduction talk, including many of the Republicans, and that is what are called spending cuts are only reductions in the rate of growth of spending. So you are seeing how when “brutal, heartless spending cuts” are discussed that means that instead of spending $1.31 Trillion we are only going to spend $1.30 Trillion.
Politicians rarely speak of an actual reduction in spending.
mrveritas on October 8, 2011 at 11:08 AM
I don’t know, but it’s a perfect fit for the chart on this page: Exponential Growth
Exponential growth: It’s why we’re screwed, no matter who’s driving this thing.
ZenDraken on October 8, 2011 at 11:39 AM
So what you are saying is that we can take a “D” Ticket ride (PUBs) or an “E” ticket ride (DIMS) over the class 5+ fiscal waterfall. While one is slower we still go over the mother of all falls. Maybe you now understand why I despise the Pubs as much as the Dims. Both parties are basically progressives. The conservatives we put in office in 2010 are a drop in the bucket of what we need when the party machinery is still controlled by nanny staters.
chemman on October 8, 2011 at 11:41 AM
Done in One.
Tim_CA on October 8, 2011 at 11:43 AM
I was concerned about national debt and deficit spending in the 80′s and got told I was ignorant of economics. I don’t feel much like having the last laugh right now because my children and grand children are so screwed.
chemman on October 8, 2011 at 11:44 AM
Don’t worry Greece, you’ll have a friend soon.
God, we are so screwed. Even when the GOP takes back the White House and Senate in 2012, how the F are they going to make a dent in this disaster. It’s going to take 40 years to undo the damage done by 4 years of the Obama presidency. I guess we have to start somewhere so…..
Yakko77 on October 8, 2011 at 12:06 PM
From the link:
Entitlement reform is a must if we are to survive as a nation.
youngTXcon on October 8, 2011 at 1:06 PM
When the blurb on the main page includes a chart, a useful graphic, or an interesting picture, would it hurt to put in on the article page in a larger format?
tbrosz on October 8, 2011 at 1:18 PM
Agree with tbrosz about the chart.
Alana on October 8, 2011 at 1:50 PM
Me too. One of the scariest thoughts about Obama as president is, “what will he do when he’s a lame duck.” He’s a petty, spiteful and vindictive little man. (is that the correct definition of a liberal?) What will he do to us as punishment for not reelecting him? I can see presidential pardons of terrorists and if he could, I know he would free Wesley Cook in a second. Then there’s all the harm he can do with his presidential mandates. Just think of the people he could appoint to the judiciary and other factions of government. Sad to say, we’re going to fell Barry’s sting long after he’s gone.
Tommy_G on October 8, 2011 at 1:55 PM
Do I see the lower end of a hockey stick?
esblowfeld on October 8, 2011 at 2:01 PM
You are so right. This is the end game of the Cloward-Piven strategy – overwhelm the system by creating more and more dependents. Then collapse the system and replace capitalism with socialism where the state controls industry, health care, education and finance. Depression era living conditions will be returned courtesy of the anointed one.
Obama is praising these protesters as “going after the right targets this time”. Expect to see him down on Wall Street sometime in the next few weeks announcing “this is who we have been waiting for – we are the future! Don’t back down! Don’t back down!”
People mocked Glen Beck when he predicted everything that is now happening. He connected the f’ing dots on his blackboards every day for two years – showing videos of those who were spearheading this attack on our nation. And he was considered insane and dismissed as a loon by the MSM and even some others on Fox.
Orchestrated riots will start in 3…2…1
in_awe on October 8, 2011 at 2:51 PM
In looking at the chart one can see a huge increase in spending in 2007. From then on it is out of control. Guess what BIG event happened in 2007? The Demorats took over BOTH houses of Congress! We got Pelosi and Reid with milk toast GWB in control.What a combo of forces. Two alcoholics and a liquor salesman! As much as I hate Obama for what he has and is doing to our nation the most important issue before us is to take back Congress. We must become the Tea Party on steroids and make sure the Browns and the Collins/Snowe types are booted out as well. If we had 60 Jim De Mints in the Senate and 100 more TP representatives in the House we could stop Obama cold. Keep that in mind when you are sick to your stomach when Romney gets the nomination. WE MUST TAKE BACK THE SENATE!
inspectorudy on October 9, 2011 at 1:31 PM
I may be wrong if so let me know but I don’t think any budget cuts take effect till there is a budget. Perhaps that’s why Reid won’t bring a budget up for a vote:!
DSchoen on October 9, 2011 at 4:49 PM
I think the actual title is the “One-Term-inator”.
VelvetElvis on October 10, 2011 at 7:25 AM
Hey! How dare you bring a relevant fact into this discussion?!
Yeah, bro, it’s all smoke until there’s a real budget. Approaching 950 days. How is it that a President, a Speaker of the House, and a Senate Majority Leader can move, think or even breathe until they fix that tiny little detail? They should be neck-deep in complaints from citizens about DOING THEIR JOB.
The three named above have gotten my written complaints, have they gotten yours? At this point, I have to say to citizens everywhere, you must do your job in this government, which is to tell them what they are doing wrong. Be involved, or quit whining about the results.
Freelancer on October 10, 2011 at 12:24 PM