News Today

I‘m back!

And what a week I missed. From a controversial rocket launch in North Korea to the first seizure of an American vessel in over a century. It’s been an interesting couple of days.

One thing that definitely caught my attention was the news that the U.S. budget deficit has just about reached a trillion dollars this year. The record deficit for the first six months of the fiscal year was a whopping $956.80 billion.

Now this isn’t something that can be blamed solely on President Barack Obama. The fiscal year began in October while we were still under the Bush administration. As we all know Obama didn’t take office until January 20th.

Still, one has to question some of the actions that Obama has taken. So far the Obama administration has given $293 billion in T.A.R.P. money to ailing banks and financial institutions. Tack on another $60 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If you take the T.A.R.P. money out of the picture then those budget deficits don’t look nearly as frightening, do they?

Folks, our ballooning deficits are a real problem. They aren’t going to go away magically and they certainly aren’t going to go away with government bailouts. Our government has spent $1.95 trillion dollars in the last six months. This is simply not sustainable.

The Congressional Budget Office announced in a March report that they expect the budget deficit to hit $1.845 trillion by the end of the year. If their predictions are correct the budget will make up an estimated 13.1% of the country’s total economic output.

The Obama administration predicts a $1.750 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009, but says that figure will fall to $1.171 trillion in 2010. This is based on the assumption that their predictions about the economy come true. The administration forecasts a 1.2% contraction in our GDP for calendar 2009 but an expansion of 3.2% in 2010.

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