Our view on the federal budget: Both parties share blame as deficit soars to new heights
All should read!
USA-Democrats duck tough choices; Republicans lack credibility.
The good news about the federal budget is — well, there isn’t any good news. The less-bad news is that the deficit for the year that ended Sept. 30 came in lower than forecast. Big deal. At $1.4 trillion, the red ink was stunningly large, the largest deficit ever in dollars and the largest relative the economy since the U.S. emerged from World War II in 1945.
Put another way, the government borrowed 40 cents in fiscal 2009 for every dollar it spent. A family can’t sustain that for long, nor can a nation.
To be sure, much of that $1.4 trillion was unavoidable — the price the nation paid to avoid something much worse: a depression. As distasteful as it was to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue banks and stimulate the economy, those were necessary actions at the edge of an economic abyss. And during a downturn as sharp as this one, tax revenue inevitably plunges while spending for “safety net” programs shoots up.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Ah, hell, printing a trillion dollars in order to stem the effects of a recession – even though 90% of the money won’t be spent until the recession is over (and during a crucial campaign season) – sure was “unavoidable.”