More unbelievable garbage from Faux News.

[Lancer]

Cavuto does do opinion pieces...

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DanS


Nope. The deficit will be probably about $350 billion this year, well below last year's deficit of about $410 billion.

A good economy. More jobs. Lower deficit. Cavuto's pessimism isn't warranted.

So what's the national debt now? And how much of the current budget is interest payments on that debt? And how much of those interest payments are based on debt for a five year or lesser term? How large is the national debt projected to be when Bush's successor next manages to balance the budget?

Not that I'm pessimistic, I'm making money hand over fist in this indecisive, volatile, floundering market.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by vee4473
commoners?

that's elitist leftist thinking for ya...


you know, all of what you are saying should be leveled at cnn....but i guess biased reporting was ok when it was in favor of YOUR views...

Personally, I refer to them as "peasants"

[DanS]

So what's the national debt now? And how much of the current budget is interest payments on that debt? And how much of those interest payments are based on debt for a five year or lesser term? How large is the national debt projected to be when Bush's successor next manages to balance the budget?

Do your own research!

(p.s., I am skeptical of the precision of long-term projections, demonstrated by the fact that the deficit numbers were so far off even for the next fiscal year. You have to do projections for management purposes, but bring your shaker of salt along.)

[MichaeltheGreat]

Actually, you're better off investing in a salt mine.


BTW, they were all rhetorical questions.

[Odin]

@ Dan's fact-butchering. It is because people like him that I don't trust economists, they are all neo-liberal fanatics nowdays, it is like a religion to them. Keynesians have become an endagered species it seems.

[Adam Smith]

DanS (and others):

Deficit projections are crap because Congress made them that way. The Congressional Budget Office used to do reasonably sophisticated deficit projections. This was irritating to Congress because a) they could not be explained in 10 second sound bites, and b) they gored political oxen on both the left and the right. A few years ago Congress, in its infinite wisdom, ordered the Congressional Budget Office to do a very simplified version of deficit projection: just draw a straight line through the last three years of deficits. Under this "method", when the deficit is getting better it appears to be getting better as far out as the forecast goes; when the deficit is getting worse, it appears to be getting continually worse; and whenever there is a turning point you appear to have wild swings.

Odin:

Keynesian are justifiably an endangered species becuase their theories did not fit the facts. According to Keynesians, there is an unbreakable tradeoff between inflation and unemployment, known as the Phillips Curve. Low inflation could only be purchased at the cost of high unemployment. Low unemployment woul invariably result in high inflation. The Keynesian model has no explanation whatsoever for the 1970's (high inflation, high unemployment) or the 1990's (low inflation, low unemployment). It was problems such as this which led macroeconomists to integrate the supply side of the economy into their theories.

edit: typos

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
they spend like its going out of style. the spend money like they are drunk alcoholics at a bar needing to get down just one more drink. they spend money like michael jackson. and then they lie, they tell everyone that they are the fiscally responsible party.

Well, that's sorta where they came from, right?

[Dinner]

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=6337&sequence=0

The US budget deficit was $71 billion in the month of march alone. That's $3 billion more then they had prohected.

CBO estimates that the government incurred a deficit of $235 billion in the first seven months of 2005, which is about $49 billion less than the shortfall recorded for the same period last year. Total receipts through the first seven months of the fiscal year were about $146 billion (or 13.6 percent) higher than those recorded in the same period last year. Outlays have risen by about $97 billion, or 7 percent, CBO estimates.

So things are looking better then last year so far but the deficit for the year through April was $235.

[DanS]

AS: Yeh, I didn't know the specifics of any change, but they have been obviously unreliable for a while.

Bush's short-term public budget projections seem crafted with an eye toward tactics rather than facts -- i.e., take the heat for high deficits in January and February, then make your Summer and Fall budget push based upon the "better than expected" situation. Surprisingly effective, at least as things stand now.

I suspect that Bush is getting much better projections on a private basis, including long-term projections. But I do not know that for a fact. Also, I have no idea if Congress, or a part of congress, is let in on the secret.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by DanS
Bush's short-term public budget projections seem crafted with an eye toward tactics rather than facts -- i.e., take the heat for high deficits in January and February, then make your Summer and Fall budget push based upon the "better than expected" situation. Surprisingly effective, at least as things stand now.

Not that surprising, considering his base.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

the debt is 7.7 trillion USD. it increases by over $1.5 billion USD a day. As a share of population, it is at over $22,000 per person living in the US.

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/