Don’t look now, but there goes the deficit

The United States budget deficit is expected to reach $1 trillion this year. Chris Cillizza explains America’s crazy spending and why politicians, including President Trump, seem to avoid talking about the problem.

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
Don't look now, but the US deficit is skyrocketing

The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2020 to 2030

The Real National Security Threat: America’s Debt

Transcript: Donald Trump interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
.

U.S. deficit to eclipse $1 trillion in 2020, CBO says, as fiscal imbalance continues to widen
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About me:
I was named "best dressed" in 7th grade. That, along with being CNN's editor at large and author of the daily "Point" newsletter are my proudest achievements. Look for me here every Tuesday and Thursday to find out what’s really going down in politics.

CREDITS
Writer: Chris Cillizza
The Point team: Leigh Munsil and Allison Gordon
Editor: Steven Sevilla
Producer: Arielle Sacks

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108 comments

    1. @Shawn Corbin please get an education and you may want to consider stop watching FOX . my god are you folks just not looking around or you could be russian bots or wannabees

    1. @Deb Hammersley 5-6 bankruptcies out of 500 companies under Trump Organization. BIG DEAL !!! I call that 95-98% success rate

    2. FAKE NEWS…It Is The Democrats Who Are Spending The Most Money…Look What They Have Spent Just Trying To Take Down Trump.

    3. @worky It is NOT different, Obama contributed to the economy AND to the deficit, and Trump is just maintaining the same old street, only the name has changed…..

    1. @Iron Bar , protecting your cult!!:: LOL
      Those German words mean nothing to me..
      You are just another brainwash klan member!!:: LOL

    2. @Goahead…… and 494 successful businesses. A pretty good ratio considering that the majority of new businesses go bust in the first year.

  1. *“The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all.”* – Valery Legasov _Trump has told over 16,000 LIES while in office._

    1. @TX BattleJunk86
      No such thing. NY times, LA Times, Washington Post, Chicago Times, NPR… multiple reliable sources are recommended and you best judge in critical thinking.

    2. @Mike Bond yet black people loved him before he was prez rappers sang about wishing they were him everyone wanted to be him no one cared back then so why care now then again it’s typical hypocrisy from the left like always also look up blexit just sayin black people love this republican like none have since the 50s

    3. @Whistleblower none of those are “reliable sources” want to know how to find a reliable one find one that the left is trying to shut down and you know they speak the truth

    4. @TX BattleJunk86 Yeah I keep hearing that, but only from Trump supporters, who are hardly objective and rational. The latest polling shows that 85% of blacks will support ANY Democrat in favor of Trump. Now go ahead and tell me why the polling I’m reading isn’t correct even though I haven’t told you the source. Blexit is actually about black economic freedom, not blacks leaving the Democratic Party. The name was swiped by Trump supporter Candace Owens, who even tried to rope Kanye West into the organization, forcing him to denounce this hijacked “Trump” version of the movement. Your (correct) belief that Democrats are hypocrites doesn’t mean that Republicans aren’t. There is no monopoly on hypocritical thinking on either side, though in the last 4 years Trump supporters have turned the already-tarnished reputation of the GOP into dogsh**.

      I’ll give you a hint: if “their” side is sh**, and “your” side is sh**, don’t double down on support for “your” side… LOOK FOR ANOTHER SIDE. Maybe politics is not a 2-sided coin, but a sphere. I’m neither Democrat nor Republican. I’m ANTI-political.

  2. Infrastructure crumbling, budget deficit growing, stock market bubble getting bigger, national debt exploding.

    Despite the above, zombie Trump thinks his economy is booming.

    1. @Ahmad Razi
      The problem is, so do his zombified worshippers. They apparently believe everything he says,which is bad policy even if you’re believing a reaaally honest person, which tRump ain’t.

    2. LETS SEE COMMIE OBAMMIE CHASED COMPANIES AND JOBS AWAY AND PUT MILLIONS ON WELFARE TRUMP TOOK THEM OFF SO YES IT IS BOOMING STOP BEING A SUCKER FOR COMMIE NEWS NUTS

    3. @Cathy Raney Raney WE WERE STUPID ENOUGH FOR COMMIE OBAMMIE AND ALMOST MURDER LIAR HILLERY AFTER THAT TRUMPS PLAN HAS WORKED LIKE IT OR NOT WE KNOW PUTIN LED DEMON RATS DONT WAKE UP !!

    4. WELL GO TRY VENZ THEY HAVE SOCIALISM MORE TO YOUR LIKING I THINK JUST TAKE FOOD AND TOILET PAPER WITH YA HAHAH WAKE UP !!

    1. @Andreas karlsson Fox supports Tea Party.

      For that reason alone we keep them.

      If CNN starts supporting the Tea Party we keep them too, for that reason alone.

    2. Your hero defaulted so many times the US banks wouldn’t touch him, he had to borrow from Russian mafia backed Deuchebank.

    3. @Kip McEwen So obviously it’s not about accuracy but rather the fact that they support your ideology. At least you’re honest about that!

  3. Trump told everyone he was the king of debt. Guess the Republicans only care about deficit spending when it fits their plans. 😆

    1. @Nemo Krada
      For heaven’s sake the deficit was balanced under Clinton then Bush Light added the $11 trillion(all the war money left unreported) then Bush Light refused to assist in the bailout letting the DOW Jones to fall below 8,000. After Obama added a cool $1 TRILLION to correct the housing gambles and subsequent recession. The interest cost $1 trillion/year. Eight years times a trillion equals $8 TRILLION. Add this to the inherited $12 TRILLION and Obama actually came in under the $1 TRILLION he spent on the RECOVERY ACT.

    2. @Noneshere You just called the US soldier shot 18 times in Niger in 2018 a rat. He was a Democrat. Do you hate all soldiers or just the dead ones? Murica

    1. My work has seen a significant amount of fall off for sales compared to the last 10 years which has been all growth. Consumers are scared and not buying as much as being stated.

      Don’t watch the Stock Markets, that’s a false sense of what is happening. Watch sales! Stock markets are manipulated through buy backs and other scams that only benefit those in the upper tiers. Sales shows how the average person is doing.

    2. @jonathan beatty Sorry John, Christmas sales were record highs since the Trump tax cuts. Wage hikes for the bottom half since Trump’s tax cuts too. More employment, more credit, less welfare and unemployment too.
      As far as the DOW, the recession happened a month after Obama was named candidate and took 6 long grueling years to reverse itself. Trumps candidacy triggered a skyrocketing 60% RISE in three years. That’s why you don’t want to look at stocks. America reacted to Obama and to Trump.
      KAG2020 and weekly DOW records since Trump was elected.

    3. @jonathan beatty It’s all a house of cards propped up by massive deficit spending and low rates, consumer debt is at all time highs, stores are closing everywhere, and real inflation is through the roof.

  4. $1 trillion dollars, most of which has went straight into the pocket of the richest billionaires. Working class Trump supporters are so dumb*

    1. @chunksmyhero Come the evening of November 3rd, you’ll be standing in a safe space knee deep in liberal tears… just like the last time.

    2. @NPC Non Binary Demigender Pansexual Two Spirit typical trump response….it goes’ i’m not a trump supporter ‘ and then show you are one of trump cultmembers.

    3. @brian gardner hey ‘u r dumb as sa bunch of cocks too? He’s referring to the 2 trilion dollar tax break to corps and wealthy that reasults in zero business investment, roughly seam gdp as obama, fewer job creation then obama, i guess almost all new wealth going to the very top and the gap at the widest ever is not enough…we should cut taxes more for the rich cause they have it so bad…it must suck how they can make stock market gains based on record buy backs because of bought government tax policy..

    4. Jeff – say Jeff, what did your wife get her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day?

    5. @Wheatie Sweetie how about took away the mandatory Obamacare that cost more than my mortgage every month and had a 15000 deductible. Sorry I work so I dont qualify for assistance. I am prime example of the middleman who got screwed royally while illegal aliens get free healthcare. That’s why trump got elected. Middleman got screwed during Obama’s term

    1. @David Williams “In the USA, a capitalist country, an ambulance will arrive, collect this person, take him/her/it to a warm hospital, cure the staph infection/syphilis, feed it, surrender kids to the State, and put it into a drug-rehab program paid-for by people that he/she/it will never see. ”

      A fuckton of people in the us can’t afford an ambulance without having a good hard look at which medicine to stop taking for a while, let alone everything that comes after.

      You example of people blaming white heterosexual males (the group that has the least to worry about in ‘murrka) twice in a row is quite telling though.

    2. @Dead End You are validating my point. A f***** of people in the USA, a capitalist country, cannot afford an ambulance, yet still, an ambulance comes. A f****** of people in Socialists/Communists countries cannot afford an ambulance, and not surprisingly, it either does not come, or if it does, it is in an urban area and the sanitation is not up to USA standards.

      The medicines are, indeed, too expensive. The solution to that is not to let the USA government give drug companies even more money. The solution is to restructure the medical industry so that drug makers are scrambling to lower their drug prices. We have a name for that: *competition* , and it exists under capitalism, not socialized medicine.

    3. @David Williams did you really try to compare today with 500 years ago, without being facetious? Are you that stupid?

      Sure we’re better off then 500 years ago. Thats a useless reference point though, because a ton has happened in those 500 years.

      Colonialism was in its infancy 500 years ago. If you were trying to sound smart, it backfired.

      To address your bogus claim that socialism is a cancer on society; If you paid any attention to reality, you’d realize how wrong you were. Instead of going down the laundry list of evidence against your statement, im going to point to something recent and obvious; Under Boama, who implemented socialised healthcare, and a bunch of other things Right wingers would consider socialist, even if he wasnt a socialist.

      Under Obama, the yearly deficit was gradually decreasing, with the potential of a surplus if the next president was any good at economics. Trump has taken a shotgun to the effort, and completely reversed that.

      people who say Obama added X to the national debt dont understand economics. National debt is bad, but deficit is worse. You cannot tackle the debt until you get the deficit under control.

      Something that again, Obama was actually doing.

      As for Obamacare; Republicans couldnt wait to hamstring the effort, and thats the reason its not better then it is today. The Affordable Care Act has faced massive cuts across the board since the republicans were able to do it, both creating the frustrations with the Act, and pointing at the same frustrations as inherent flaws with the system.

      Fact is, Socialist ideals are actually a positive to a country. Look at any nation where corruption is fairly low, and they are working as intended; Canada, UK, Denmark, etc etc. Look at any ‘socialist’ state with rampant corruption, and its either failing, or extremely weak; Cuba, Venezuela, etc. These states are not really socialist, because the government isnt doing things for the benefit of all, The difinition of a socialist system, but only to enrich themselves.

      To reiterate; if you had even a basic understanding of any of these concepts, you would not have claimed any of the Bullshit arguments your put forward here.

    4. @Brenden Y The analogy illustrates clearly that capitalism permits a degree of stupidity that would have been a death sentence 500 years ago. If you look at a graph of human population, you will see that, until relatively recently, in the 1920’s, the curve was mostly flat. It started growing exponentially when other countries adopted the efficiency of capitalism. . Remember: before socialism, those countries were capitalist. Belgium & Holland, in particular, managed to “norm-out” on pure capitalism (Belgium especially) long before socialism. Just as a cancer is attracted to healthy tissue, the socialists are attracted to riches. They infiltrated these countries, embedded themselves, then said, “See!!!!??? Socialism is great. Look at these Scandinavian countries.” The Scandinavian countries are not doing well because of socialism. They are doing well in spite of capitalism.
      Were this not true, you would find at least 1 country among the roughly 200 whose original socio-economic policy was rooted in socialism, and that country would be rich/etc. But you do not. There is not a single such country. On the contrary, those countries that tried communism (Eastern Block, China, etc.) gradually realized how bad it is, and defected, but did so in a way to save-face. China, which is currently pretends to be Communist, wants nothing more than to dominate the world economically, using capitalist technique, with a healthy dose of corruption/perversion to accelerate the domination.
      Obamacare is a disaster because it worsens and already bad situation. It essentially says:
      _If you are the type of person that who is destined to become a medical burden, we have a gift for you. We are going to let you use the medical system at the expense of people who are not you._ So the drug addicts, diabetics, HIV+’s, alcoholics, mentally-ill, etc; consume a grossly disproportionate amount of medical care. The hospitals and doctors are quite happy with this fact because they know that they have 20 million healthy people ready to pay for these sick people. Furthermore, since many of these sick people are at the low-end of socio-economic spectrum, and are on Obamacare, the people who pay are the middle class. Rather, the upper-middle class. Rather, the *companies* who hire the upper-middle class. These companies get Blue-Cross/Blue-Shield, pay hefty premiums, then fund the premiums by raising prices of products/services sold. Rich people do not care really. And as said, poor people abuse “free” care. The people left in the cold are middle-class and lower-middle class, whose employers do not have enough to get Blue-Cross/Blue-Shield. And because the doctors/hospitals raise the prices, they cannot buy Blue-Cross/Blue-Shield reasonably on open market. So they get “catastrophic event” insurance at sky-high prices, while some drug addict visits emergency room 4 times in one month.

  5. If anyone can bankrupt America, tRump certainly can as he’s got plenty experience with 6 bankruptcies under his belt.

    1. @Kip McEwen This would be the same Tea Party that lynched and burned effigies of President Obama, yes? Gee, I wonder why anyone would be opposed to such an organization of derelicts? …trumps deficit is the largest in American history, do you have anything to say about that or do you want to continue whining about CNN being unfair to trump and your precious Tea Party?

    2. @Concrete Lightbulb And CNN and other leftists didn’t care then or now (like you) about the Tea Party going after Dems ad Repubs and didn’t support them because of wayyyycism. And this is because you blamed them all for the actions of a few.

      You made your bed so lie in it…

    3. You’re an idiot that believes the left media. Google the truth. Trumps had over 30 buisness’ over the yrs. He filed chapter 11 on 5, not 6… He got 3 of those back up & running. 2 failed. Fact, not BS.

  6. Trump.. and others just wanted to get the power position. He doesn’t care much beyond his own lifetime. Why would he? Doesn’t affect him, and he’s never followed through and fixed his own financial obligations. He just filed and passed it on the the public at large.

    1. @Brian Barton We get it. Climate science deniers don’t care about their own children. Why would they care about mine? Trump and all his supporters are fundamentally bad people and should be kept away from children.

  7. How can you ever expect Trump supporters to think about the future of our economy, they live in the now because that’s all they can perceive.

    1. @TX BattleJunk86 he could have if a majority of those people live in middle of nowhere states like Iowa. That’s how our electoral college works

    1. @Jeff Woods it’s been three years, trump has had time to make his mark. it has not moved. at best trump is a steward. for him to make outrageous claims of progress, we would need to see outrageous progress. we are not seeing that. if somebody carries you up a mountain, but leaves you 100 feet from the summit, you don’t get to claim you climbed the mountain.

    2. chocobo   ……………..   They don’t CARE about anything they say they do: deficit spending, abortion,  anti-communism . Just about POWER and being on the cult team and being able to openly hate whoever they please .

    3. @Michael Finnigan oh now it suits your agenda? Leftists are just hypocrites.. and this President has done much more for this economy than any President since Reagan..

    1. @TX BattleJunk86 Republicans use a sound bite that the federal debt doubled under Obama. In looking at the numbers that is close to being numerically correct but falls short of being 100%. When you take into account the Great Recession, making W. Bush’s temporary tax cuts permanent, increased Social Security and Medicare spending as more Baby Boomers retire and become 65 years old and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars he inherited the story is quite different. 

      According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the Great Recession started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. President Barack Obama was sworn in on January 20, 2009, so it had already started before he entered office.

      The first thing you notice when looking at the federal deficits from fiscal 2008 (the US government fiscal year ends in September) is that it increased by almost $1 trillion from fiscal 2008 (before Obama was elected) to fiscal 2009 (which was based on Bush’s last budget). It remained over $1 trillion per year for four years and got below Bush’s last years deficit in fiscal 2015. It continued to decrease until Obama’s last year and increased again in Trump’s first year in office.

      Fiscal 2007: $161 billion (next to last year of Bush’s second term)Fiscal 2008: $459 billion (beginning impact from the Great Recession)Fiscal 2009: $1.4 trillion (Obama’s first year, Bush’s budget and in the teeth of the Recession)Fiscal 2010: $1.3 trillionFiscal 2011: $1.3 trillionFiscal 2012: $1.1 trillionFiscal 2013: $680 billionFiscal 2014: $485 billionFiscal 2015: $438 billionFiscal 2016: $587 billion

      It is clear that the almost $1 trillion jump between fiscal 2008 and 2009 was due to the Great Recession. Tax receipts fell, expenditures rose and Obama and Congress passed the American Economy and Reinvestment Act to combat the recession~ Forbes

    2. @TX BattleJunk86 part 2…..
      Using the May 2019 deficit estimates from the CBO, adding the budget deal and assuming a 3% increase in the amount of additional deficits in fiscal 2022 Trump’s deficits will be just shy of $1 trillion next year and over that figure going forward.

      Fiscal 2017: $665 billion (Trump’s first year of his Presidency)Fiscal 2018: $779 billion (9 months of tax cuts being in effect)Fiscal 2019: $896 billionFiscal 2020: $990 billionFiscal 2021: $1,092 billionFiscal 2022: $1,250 billion

      Comparing Trump’s deficits to Obama’s

      Similar to comparing Trump’s job growth during his 29 months in office to Obama’s last 29 months where Trump’s Presidency has generated almost one million fewer jobs, Trump’s federal deficits are projected to zoom past Obama’s when you combine the last four years of Obama’s Presidency to Trump’s first four years. In fact Trump’s could approach doubling Obama’s.

      There are a few timeframes that are useful to analyze given that a new President doesn’t really have control the fiscal year they are elected and inaugurated and may have minimal impact the first full year. To account for the time lags, below are three rolling four year timeframes for Obama’s last four years in office and Trump’s first four years.

      Cumulative rolling four years of deficits under Obama:

      2012-2015: $2,191 billion (last four years of Obama’s Presidency)
      2013-2016: $2,171 billion (last three years and first year of Trump’s)
      2014-2017: $2,471 billion (last two years and first two years of Trump’s)

      Under Trump:

      2017-2020: $3.330 billion (first four years of Trump’s Presidency, one year of increased spending)
      2018-2021: $3,757 billion (second to fourth year of Trump’s Presidency, first year after and two years of increased spending)
      2019-2022: $4,228 billion (last two years and first two years of next term)

      As you can see the timeframes that use the actual last four years of Obama to Trump’s first four is actually the most favorable for Trump as his cumulative budget deficit is only $1,139 billion more. As time goes by Trump’s are worse by $1,586 billion and then $1,757 billion, respectively.

    3. @Everblue Freediving actually so far based on spending trump will spend less than Obama did only about half a trillion less but still (based on dept of treasury daily spending)

    4. @Everblue Freediving sometime I’ll have time to read thru these stats I asked for 2 numbers lol not 3 days worth of research

  8. Remember when the GOP never shut up about the deficit and GDP?  Sounds like crickets now.  Digging a real big hole to prop up an economy ready to tank.  That’s what orange baby Hitler will leave us with.

    1. @Deborah Freedman they don’t even then. “deficit” whining is just a dogwhistle and excuse to further shred social safety net. figure it out.
      corollary to “deficit” is “cutting taxes.” they think it cures all ills. recession? cut taxes. boom time? cut taxes. too few libraries? cut taxes. sex-trafficking? cut taxes.
      not kidding.

      Rs literally said in 2004 that we needed to cut taxes BECAUSE we were at war (in Iraq and Afghanistan).

      when they say “reform” anything, it means cut. when they talk about “deficits” it means cut.

    2. Dems front runner wants the gov’t to pay for everyone’s education and everyone’s medical bills. This is a problem for both parties created by both parties. Even your savior Obama.

    3. @Jose reyes lol … your “both sides” is toxic af
      (and your comment hasn’t been true for 30+ yrs … jfc at least get into the right century)

    4. @Jose reyes The dems front runner wants to take back the 100 billion dollars increase that was handed to the military with zero debate..and use just part of that too fund public colleges as an investment in the countries future.
      He then wants a health care system that has been proven massively cheaper, more efficient , better results, and covers everyone……..that every other major country on earth has.
      Current system, or worse, before obama care was increasing at an unsustainable rate. Why does the world get better care for half the price?
      There is not one instance on this planet of using private for profit companies for healthcare that has worked and covered everyone..so u upset that as a whole we all pay less to get more with regards to healthcare.? or if you don’t think that everyone should be covered no matter what…then we should get rid of making hospitals treat people at the emergency room even if they can’t pay…if you can’t pay..f em. just die then

  9. It’s a game that Republickklans play. They complain about deficits when they’re not getting their way. Such as getting $ trillions in tax cuts for their rich donors and friends and $ trillions on military spending every year. Yet Republicans oppose continue to oppose Healthcare, college tuition free and minimum wage increases for the citizens. The last two Democratic Presidents has spent less and balanced the budgets more than Republican Presidents. The media need to take notes next time Republicans start whining about the deficits, when a Democratic President is in the WH they need to be ignored. Because they really don’t care about the deficits.

    1. @Earnest Lee Saddened How else was he supposed to bail out the auto industry and provide economic stimulus genius ? Think back on what Obama inherited from the other Republican idiot Bush jr..Obama turned it around and fake president is now taking credit but it’s going to crash just like his businesses

    2. @Earnest Lee Saddened Im not. I was talking about the disaster that was the economy under Bush 2, actuallly

    1. @Dave Waldon why do trump cult members have an obsession with obama…and trump to….what about obama all the time….
      if you can’t remember when obama took office the economy was complete shiitt…republicans handed over the second largest recession….and during the 2nd term..obama reduced the deficet year after year..til it was around 400 billion ..then trump got in ..and now up to a trillion …and instead of saying how wrong it is..you attack obama..where are those tea party protests..like against obama.???? all the yelling about the deficit….it turns out …that it really wasn’t about the deficit..it was about the democrat president..but no acted this way towards clinton….oh yeah .clinton was white. and trumps orange and same people ok with bush putting wars on the credit card while lowering taxes and enacting a completely unfunded medicare drug benefit……..with bush going from the surplus that he inhereted into doing what republicans do best…borrow borrow and transfer some of the borrowed money to the filthy rich…its a great scam by republicans…the country borrow the money…and the rich get it,while we as a country go in debt for it.

  10. As Moscow Mitch happily said about the deficits,” it’s not our problem “just like all Republicans they are a wrecking ball in the economy

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