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A comment on The smug style in American liberalism. Parent comment

Re:The smug style in American liberalism by CalChris on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @03:50AM (#12908081)
Of course, if you look up in the dictionary you'll find that deficit and debt are distinct words:

  debit: something that is owed or that one is bound to pay
  to or perform for another

  deficit: the amount by which expenditures or liabilities
  exceed income or assets
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/deficit http://www.dictionary.com/browse/debt

The Federal deficit was about $1.4T when Obama started and its about $600B now. Obama has been very fiscally conservative. In particular, he put the Afghanistan and Iraq wars on normal rather than emergency funding basis.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.ht...

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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by majewsky on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @07:07AM (#12909570)
Only tangentially related, but I'm amazed by the absolute value of the US deficit. The German federal deficit used to be around 10-20 billion € (now down to zero) and everyone was crying over how horribly high it is. (I know that Germany is smaller, but it has at least a fourth of the US population.)
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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by CalChris on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @07:19AM (#12909630)
Post WWII, US deficits grow under Republicans and shrink under Democrats.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EX454_wwii10_G_...

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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by gaius on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @09:30AM (#12910513)
It's a lagging indicator.
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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by pessimizer on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @09:55AM (#12910672)
We have run massive trade deficits since Reagan. Those ultimately either have to show up as national debt or personal debt. After 35 years, we're nearly maxing out both. Germany has a trade surplus (basically doing the same thing to the rest of the EU.)

edit:

http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/national-income-account...

http://www.dw.com/en/italian-pm-renzi-lashes-out-at-german-t...

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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by lintiness on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @08:49AM (#12910194)
you are out of your mind. the only reason the deficit is south of a trillion is interest rates are HALF what they were in 08.

2008 fed debt: ~10T

2016 fed debt: ~19T

2008 int exp: ~450M

2016 int exp: ~450M

he's spent like a lunatic, and his aca has just gotten started.

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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by CalChris on Wednesday November 09, 2016 @10:40AM (#12910943)
Spent like a lunatic would be his predecessor with two unfunded off the books wars, Medicare Part D, the 'Ownership' Society all paid for with tax cuts.
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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by adt2bt on Thursday November 10, 2016 @05:17AM (#12919176)
What could he have feasibly done otherwise?
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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by lintiness on Thursday November 10, 2016 @09:21AM (#12920538)
uh, cut spending?

LOL. jesus.

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Re:The smug style in American liberalism by adt2bt on Thursday November 10, 2016 @01:21PM (#12922783)
Right. Given that Congress controls the purse, how?
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