Laurence Tribe: Drop of 46% in the federal budget deficit in one year

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Link to tweet

[iemanja]

1. Bill Clinton?

ETA: Sorry, I missed that he was asking about GOP presidents.

[ffr]

3. Were you referring to the last GOP president?

?

[iemanja]

9. Oh, no

I missed the GOP part. Sorry.

[WarGamer]

2. 2021 was an unusual budgetary year because of the pandemic.

Should always have an asterisk next to it in books.

[triron]

5. Good republican talking point.

[WarGamer]

11. that was uncalled for.

[Lochloosa]

13. I agree

[W_HAMILTON]

16. But it's true.

If I remember correctly, you have to go back to the Eisenhower era to find a Republican president that left the country in a better fiscal position than what he inherited.

There's no shortage of "asterisks" that Republican administrations can come up with to blame their fiscal failures on, but truth is many of those asterisks are situations they brought about themselves through their own terrible governance.

[WarGamer]

20. I didn't say it wasn't true...

I simply pointed out that in this case... the HUGE dip is because of pandemic related spending ending.

It's not a normal "tighten the belt" or "Increase receivables" way to reduce Gov't spending.

It's because Gov't spending because of the pandemic is winding down or stopped.

Something can be true but not tell the whole or complete story.

It's common knowledge that Republicans fuck up the economy... no argument here.

[calimary]

25. Well, let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.

If it’s ANY type of good news for Democrats, I’m going with it!

[ffr]

4. Throwing shade on conservatives and notion they're fiscally responsible "CONSERVATIVES"

Democrats are better at everything except spreading their word and patting themselves in the back.

Link to tweet

[calimary]

24. True! Repubs are VERY skilled at messaging.

They’ve damn near made a science of it. Whereas I feel that Democrats are only now starting to wake up to the urgent imperative of shrewd messaging.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

27. Drop the 'near': "damn near made a science of it". See, e.g., Cambridge Analytica.

[calimary]

28. Yep.

We must NEVER forget.

And frankly, gotta say we need to take a page from that strategic weaponized messaging and up our own game.

[Sympthsical]

6. Covid spending has pretty much everything to do with this

The federal deficit in 2019 was $984.4 billion. It jumped to $3.1 trillion in 2020. We're at $1.4 trillion now.

As a lot of the Covid programs and spending unspool, it's coming down.

[WarGamer]

12. That's what I alluded to and was accused of spreading "right wing talking point"

SMDH...

[Sympthsical]

14. I expect it of the quoted tweet

They're kind of brainless like that (and well-loved for it). K.I.S.S.

A little disappointed in Tribe, though. Something's been going on with him the past few years where he's just increasingly clickbaity on Twitter. It feels like that place gets to everyone in the end. Attention addiction maybe.

As for right-wing talking point . . . eh, it's just what gets said for any fact (particularly super obvious ones like this data) that's disrupting a narrative. Internet slapping points are more dear than information on social media.

To really understand what's going on with the deficit, we'd have to seriously dig into some numbers and see what kind of spending - particularly around Covid measures - was initiated and has ended in the past two years.

Edit: I see the poster below posted the relevant information.

[vanlassie]

19. We got out of a war?

[Sympthsical]

21. Always helpful

Actually, I think President Biden's foreign policy is the thing I like best about him.

However, Afghanistan was a drop in the bucket by the end of it, and we're now funding Ukrainian efforts (which I whole-heartedly support).

It really is mostly Covid. When your deficit triples in one year, it's an unusual thing. That it is now dropping as the emergency winds down isn't really any surprise.

But I guess people are salty about noting this for some reason, lol.

[vanlassie]

26. Thanks.

[W_HAMILTON]

17. You mean "THANK YOU JOE BIDEN FOR LANDING THE PANDEMIC PLANE!"

[Sympthsical]

18. If you want to think in those terms

As my partner is fond of saying, "Sports!"

[W_HAMILTON]

22. I'd prefer it rather than repeatedly bending over backwards to give credit...

...to people that certainly don't deserve it.

[Sympthsical]

23. Oh, this

Hard pass. It's a holiday.

I have been enjoying the face-raking of late, tho.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. "BREAKING"? In October

It's a federal holiday. Nobody's announcing anything today.

ECONOMY

U.S. budget deficit cut in half for biggest decrease ever amid Covid spending declines

PUBLISHED FRI, OCT 21 2022 10:30 AM EDT UPDATED FRI, OCT 21 2022 6:05 PM EDT

Jeff Cox
@JEFF.COX.7528 https://facebook.com/jeff.cox.7528
@JEFFCOXCNBCCOM https://twitter.com/JeffCoxCNBCcom

KEY POINTS
• The U.S. budget deficit was sliced in half for fiscal 2022, the biggest drop in history following two years of huge Covid-related spending.
• The shortfall declined to $1.375 trillion, compared to the 2021 deficit of $2.776 trillion. Revenue posted easily the highest one-year total on record.
• The deficit decline would have been steeper had it not been for the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program.

The U.S. budget deficit was sliced in half for fiscal 2022, the biggest drop in history following two years of huge Covid-related spending.

Though still large in historical terms, the budget shortfall declined to $1.375 trillion, compared to the 2021 deficit of $2.776 trillion.

The decline would have been steeper had it not been for the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program. Education spending totaled $639.4 billion for the fiscal year, $408 billion higher than estimated.

The 2022 fiscal year saw $4.896 trillion in revenue against $6.272 trillion in outlays. The outlays number represented about a $550 billion decline in spending but an $850 billion increase in revenue. The revenue total is by far the highest ever for the U.S. government.

{snip}

Fri Oct 21, 2022: U.S. budget deficit cut in half for biggest decrease ever amid Covid spending declines

Fri Oct 21, 2022: U.S. budget deficit cut in half for biggest decrease ever amid Covid spending declines

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=archives&date=2022x10x21

[MichMan]

10. Isn't it Congress who is responsible for the deficit ?

[peppertree]

15. True - but presidents' budgets usually set the pace