Budget Bliss

There is no statute of limitations on hypocrisy.

   The federal budget is heading toward balance, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but what should be met with conservative cheers has hardly prompted a peep.
   Could it be that the massive hole dug by Republican Administrations, now being filled by Democrats, is a concept too much for them to handle? In any case, the many calls for austerity are gone from the electioneering chant.
   Here are some numbers: The Clinton Administration posted budget surpluses for four fiscal years, and handed the incoming George W. Bush a nest-egg surplus of $127 billion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30,  2001. (This was the first year the budget was in the black since 1969.) In less than one year, however, that surplus was gone and then some -- a $250 billion turnaround, causing a deficit of $158 billion for FY 2002.
   Over his next two presidential terms, the Bush-led federal budget deficit increased so much that President Barack Obama in his first year in office had to cope with a deficit of $1.4 trillion. Since then, however, the federal budget deficit has been trimmed to $426 billion for the fiscal year that ends in three weeks, on Sept. 30.
   Now, the nonpartisan CBO says 2015 "will mark the sixth consecutive year in which the deficit has declined." That new deficit figure, the CBO said, will be "the smallest (deficit) since 2007, and at 2.4 percent of GDP, it would be the below the average deficit over the past 50 years."
   In addition, the CBO expects the nation's economy will expand this year, as well as for the next two years.
   So things are looking good, with the economy improving and budget deficits declining. That is, of course, assuming a new administration that would take over in January of 2017 doesn't blow it.
   The Reagan-Bush Sr. years (1981-1993) saw the federal budget fall further into a deficit hole, bottoming out at $290 billion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1992. Nonetheless, President Bill Clinton not only brought the federal budget into balance, but posted surpluses for four years straight. That was the first surplus since fiscal year 1970, under another Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson. The only other period there were multi-year surpluses was in the years 1947-1950, under Democrat Harry S. Truman.
   Granted, during war years and economic downturns there have been unavoidable deficits. But now that the federal budget hole is being filled, where is the praise for what has long been called for by those who demand radical cuts in federal spending?

   Silence.