There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Politics is not about getting anything done. It's about defeating the other guy.
Revenue is up and spending is down, leading to a $107 billion drop in the federal deficit, says the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
But will that stop the right-wing ranters from warning that America is collapsing? Doubtful. Despite all data signals, the only thing collapsing is the GOP complaint of misgovernment by a Democratic administration.
The CBO reported that "the federal government ran a budget deficit of $184 billion for the first four months of fiscal year 2014 -- $107 less than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year." From October through January, the CBO said, "Revenues are higher and outlays are lower," and at this pace, the federal government will end fiscal 2014 with a deficit of $514 billion, or 3.0 percent of gross domestic product, down from $680 billion, or 4.1 percent of GDP in fiscal 2013.
Total receipts were up by 8 percent for the first four months of fiscal 2014 (October-January) and total outlays were down by 6 percent.
Meanwhile, the economy grew by 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a first estimated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. A second, more complete analysis, is due Feb. 28, the BEA noted.
So the economy is continuing to recover, but this is no time to keep crying wolf and warning of disaster. The real danger is in a self-fulfilling prophecy, sent out for purely political reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment