Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009

RSS |

Twitter

Matt Taibbi

Palin: Our First WWE Politician

Pick an asshole, any asshole, and she'll rock the house

12 hours, 45 minutes ago
analysis

Book Tour Shows Palin
Hitting a Nerve

'Going Rogue' phenomenon may foreshadow something bigger

8 hours, 43 minutes ago
the big plan

Beck Will Host Conventions
to Educate America

He's shifting toward political organizer, plans big DC rally

Nov 21, 09 5:06 PM CST
Senate Democrats Clear
Health Care Hurdle, 60-39

Reid gets 60 votes to open full debate after Thanksgiving recess

Nov 21, 09 7:13 PM CST
editorial

NYT to Blankfein:
Your 'Apology'
Is Bull

Editorial board schools Goldman CEO in true meaning of 'sorry'

6 hours, 36 minutes ago
Palin Pulls in Big Bucks
—for Democrats

'Going Rogue' boosts Dem fundraising to new high

Nov 21, 09 6:50 AM CST
NO COMMUNION FOR YOU, MY SON

RI Bishop Disses
Kennedy Over
Pro-Choice
Stance

Spat over Patrick's position on abortion escalates

15 hours, 6 minutes ago
who let the paranoids out?

46 Years After Kennedy, the Virus of Hate Is Back

Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert panders to dangerous paranoids

Nov 21, 09 9:08 AM CST
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

McConnell:
Dems Proceed
at 2010 Peril

Senators hit the Sunday talk shows after health vote

12 hours, 14 minutes ago
Billboard Links Obama to Jihad

Colo. car dealership wants this opinion heard

Nov 20, 09 8:42 PM CST
Eyes on 2010

Lincoln
Swings to
Center of
Health Debate

Dems come calling as GOP eyes her seat in 2010

10 hours, 26 minutes ago
HE'S GOT A BOOK OUT, TOO

Beck to Unveil
'Big Plan' at
Saturday Rally

Righty pundit OK with destroying Dems and GOP

Nov 20, 09 8:07 PM CST
Neglected Ind. Fans Boo Palin

Hecklers accuse her of 'quitting on the job'

Nov 20, 09 3:50 PM CST

|NEXT STORY »

Record $1.4T Deficit Imperils Recovery

Gap dwarfs FY2008 figure, spells trouble for new stimulus plans

By M. Morris| Posted Oct 16, 09 6:35 PM CDT|

(Newser) – The federal deficit in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $1.4 trillion, lower than projected but still a record. At 10% of GDP, the figure is the largest since 1945, when the deficit was 21.5% of GDP. The figure made public today coincides with early rumblings about extending some features of last winter's $787 billion stimulus package, the New York Times reports.

"It was critical that we acted to bring the economy back from the brink earlier this year," said White House OMB director Peter Orszag. "The president recognizes that we need to put the nation back on a fiscally sustainable path."

Graphic shows federal debt held by public as percentage of GDP.

Peter Orszag, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, speaks to the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York, Wednesday, July 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The federal deficit is a record $1.4 trillion, which is a whole lot of pennies. (©? Kris ?)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

11.20.09

The Health-Care Wars Have Just Begun

11.19.09

Sarah Palin Deserves Some More Attention

31 comments

VIEWING:

Reader64481089
Oct 16, 09 6:38 PM CDT

So if we had the 1.5 trillion Bush spent on his little Iraq war game then things would be better perhaps? Reply

IN RESPONSE:

doingtherightthing
Oct 16, 09 7:07 PM CDT

This comment has been removed by Newser’s community. You must be logged in to view this comment.

-13

IN RESPONSE:

Shannonals
Oct 16, 09 8:24 PM CDT

The fact you have to insult other posters to validate a point reflects how truly ignorant you are doingtherightthing

IN RESPONSE:

paul123
Oct 16, 09 8:30 PM CDT

@1089: No

IN RESPONSE:

odowd80
Oct 16, 09 10:18 PM CDT

@rightthing: Tax Revenue is one piece of the deficit puzzle. Since Bush crashed the economy and funneled all the money to the wealthiest 1 percent (who don't pay taxes), tax revenues have plummeted, thus increasing the deficit. War spending is also draining the treasury at an alarming rate. The tiny bit of domestic spending that Obama is responsible for only accounts for a fraction of the deficit. At least Obama's programs are spent on AMERICAN citizens for a change.

IN RESPONSE:

SilenceDogood
Oct 17, 09 5:26 AM CDT

Odowd, your data in false; New data released by the IRS today offers interesting insights into the distributional spread of the federal income tax burden, new analysis by the Tax Foundation shows. The new data shows that the top-earning 25% of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5% of the nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86%). The top 1% of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2% of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4% of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1% of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95% of tax returns. (Excerpt) Read more at taxprof.typepad.com ...

| 0 minutes ago

cornelison
Oct 16, 09 6:43 PM CDT

So, do Americans want the govt. to do nothing? What plan did the Republicans have? If the Republicans voted no on everything from the Democrats, is there anything that they are willing to vote yes on? Reply

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Oct 16, 09 7:48 PM CDT

@corn actually since most of the stimulus, over 80% still hasn't been spent it seems that the Republican plan of doing nothing is being tried de facto.

IN RESPONSE:

Wraith
Oct 16, 09 10:33 PM CDT

@ godawgs, again total misinformation as usual either you truly belive your own misinformation or your straight out lying, Much more than 20% has been spent and just today I read 7 articles pertaining how the South is gaining the most use from it as other states sit around misusing it for toy projects

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Oct 16, 09 10:45 PM CDT

@wraith well since according to the recovery.gov site the total spent as of today was only 174b, which is 19%. So I am going to say that you got your facts wrong, but you can check the site if you want. www.recovery.gov

| 0 minutes ago

justme
Oct 16, 09 6:57 PM CDT

Bush's overspending will soon be dwarfed by the Obama spending on all his pet projects. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

Shannonals
Oct 16, 09 8:25 PM CDT

So, things liek the American Recovery Act which has given employment to millions is a pet project?

-2

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Oct 16, 09 8:30 PM CDT

@shann the stimulus has not given millions of people jobs. That save or create stuff can't be proven and even the white house came out today and said it was only 30,000. I don't know where you got millions from but that is incorrect.

| 0 minutes ago

SemperFI
Oct 16, 09 6:58 PM CDT

Heres a clue on reduction. Stop giving money to banks for bailouts. Let them fail or let them be bought out by someone else. Its Capitalism stupid. When a HotDog stand fails you dont see anybody bail out every hotdog stand in the Coiuntry. If car companies fail. Let them as long as defense or National Security isnt affected. And now these Wall Street bastards are all getting "rentention" bonsuses. Hire a 8th grader to add and subtract for you Reply

| 0 minutes ago

Doctor_Zaius
Oct 16, 09 7:28 PM CDT

Let's look at two years. 1937 and 1945. The above article already points out that in 1945 the deficit was 21% of GDP or twice what it is now. One could theorize that the post war years were an economic wasteland. Yet one would be wrong. The late 40's and 50's were one of the greatest economic growth periods of any culture ever recorded. Now let's look at 1937. The deficit hawks went to Roosevelt worried about the spending and convinced him to cut back. The fragile economy went right back into recession. So what have we learned here? At this stage of the game it would be foolish to cut off spending until the economy has fully recovered. Then the improved economy coupled with spending cuts and increased revenue will make the deficit evaporate like morning dew on a hot summer day. However I have no doubt that the "Borrow and spend" Republicans will wring their hands and try to drum up some deficit fear to make political hay on this issue. Hypocritical really, given the insane spending of the last three Republican presidential administrations. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Oct 16, 09 7:50 PM CDT

well then doc if history tells us that spending gets us recovered faster, why is the administration taking so long to get the stimulus money out to the public? It just seems odd to me that the majority of the release of the money seems to coincide with election years (2010 and 2012) the left wouldn't be holding money back so that they look like hero's in election years would they?

-1

IN RESPONSE:

Doctor_Zaius
Oct 16, 09 8:08 PM CDT

I don't know, I'm not an economist. But many have said that the stimulus was not big enough. Sometimes when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one. I have always felt that a second round of stimulus was needed. I also feel the original stimulus was overly heavy on tax cuts (which do very little for stimulus) and light on jobs spending but it was a compromise bill.

IN RESPONSE:

freethemall
Oct 16, 09 8:10 PM CDT

Well said, Doc. I would say the facts you lay out, argue that, if anything, the stimulus was too small.

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Oct 16, 09 8:14 PM CDT

i don't think that the stimulus was too small if they actually used it. the government is just holding it for something but we don't know what. Now I will disclose that I wasn't for the stimulus or any of the bailouts. I would at least like this entire stimulus spent before they even try and get another stimulus going. The bill when it was sold to the public was to create jobs and keep unemployment, with no Republican support (really) then again same as health care I don't know what the left was compromising with.

IN RESPONSE:

odowd80
Oct 16, 09 10:28 PM CDT

Doc, you hit the nail on the head regarding the hypocrisy of Republicans. They love spending money more than Dems, AND they don't have the balls to raise taxes to pay for their programs! I remember listening to Cheney on Sunday morning news shows in 2005 talking down the deficit, saying that its "manageable" and its only some percentage of GDP and saying that Dems are being ridiculous for worrying about fiscal responsibility. HYPOCRITES ALL

IN RESPONSE:

Forderon
Oct 17, 09 1:03 AM CDT

Martin Wolf and Paul Krugman are two notable economists who said from the beginning that it wasn't big enough. This speak to godawgs point about only 20% being use so far. If you allocate more, you get more. Most of us knew that it wasn't all going to be spent. If they really wanted a 700B stimulus, they should've allocated twice or three times as much like Wolf said.

IN RESPONSE:

Forderon
Oct 17, 09 1:07 AM CDT

By the way, we got out of the Depression because of the enormous public works projects started by FDR, mostly because of WW2. We can do the same today. We can put millions to work on high speed rail, clean energy, and other progressive technologies if only the gov't could get off their asses instead of arguing about the worthless shit they argue about.

IN RESPONSE:

SilenceDogood
Oct 17, 09 5:39 AM CDT

Zaius, I pretty much agree with your post until the last line. I do believe we can spend our way out of this slump with reservations. History has proven we can accomplish this, however previous examples have been with the USA in a strong manufacturing and industrial economy, today we are a showdown our former selves with a preponderance of economy utilized as a welfare state; the spending of the Republican administrations as you like to state leaves out the fact that there were Democratic Congresses in charge of budgets and spending and Clinton signed the repeal of the Glas-Stegal Act. The question that is before us is if the United States has what it takes to pull up our bootstraps and survive as a free nation.

IN RESPONSE:

godawgs
Oct 17, 09 8:32 AM CDT

@ford I agree with the idea of putting the people to work creating the high speed rail lines and other clean jobs. this would be good for the Admin as well as the people since it will also show their real commitment to getting off foreign oil and leading the green economy.

IN RESPONSE:

Doctor_Zaius
Oct 17, 09 2:59 PM CDT

The Repeal of the Glass-Steagall act was called the Gramm-Leach-Bliley act. All three of those Jokers were Republicans. The first time it hit congress the Dems shot it down. Only with compromise were the Republicans (Who strongly supported it) able to pick up enough Dems to get it passed. Open a history book once in a while Silence. And for the record. The President submits the budget and the Congress approves it. Every time Reagan submitted his insane budgets the Democratic congress cut it back.

IN RESPONSE:

SilenceDogood
Oct 18, 09 3:43 AM CDT

Zaius, was it not your Democratic President Clinton that signed this bill, and if so why do you want to pin it on the Republicans?

IN RESPONSE:

Doctor_Zaius
Oct 19, 09 9:43 PM CDT

Silence yourself. Did Clinton support it, yes. Should he have? No. But listen carefully, HE DID NOT WRITE THE BILL> REPUBLICANS WROTE THE BILL, REPUBLICANS SUPPORTED THE BILL, ONLY A FEW DEMOCRATS VOTED FOR THE BILL, HAD CLINTON NOT SIGNED THE BILL IT WOULD HAVE BECOME LAW ANYWAY AS 60 SENATORS VOTED FOR THE BILL MOST OF WHOM WERE REPUBLICANS. I bet you still don't get it. I love how Republicans convince a few Democrats to go along with Republican ideas and then when the shit hits the fan it's the few Democrats fault for the stupid ideas of Republicans.

| 0 minutes ago

Moderation
Oct 16, 09 9:57 PM CDT

Look guys this is pretty easy stuff on the stimulus. When you let things get this bad, which Clinton and Bush did by not regulating Wall Street, then you get companies that are too big to fail. If the government had not stepped in then the banks, auto manufacturers and insurers would have all failed. That would have driven the economy into depression. The reason you do not just blow all of the money at once is because you need sustained spending over the long term. You all assume that the measures taken are not working. We are not in depression. We are also not out of the woods yet. All that toxic debt is still out there. Sooner or later we are going to have to deal with it. GM is not fixed. We are continuing to shed jobs and there will be more. Just because companies have cut their way to profitability and the market is up, don't be fooled. We are still in a helluva mess. Reply

IN RESPONSE:

SilenceDogood
Oct 17, 09 5:43 AM CDT

well said

| 0 minutes ago

Jayster999
Oct 16, 09 10:16 PM CDT

Meet the new prez, same as the old prez. Bye-bye America. Reply

-1

IN RESPONSE:

Hip
Oct 16, 09 11:05 PM CDT

Your America went "bye-bye" 400 years ago, Jay666. It's not "bye-bye America"...it's "Good to have you back America, where have you been all these years?"

| 0 minutes ago

View all 31 comments »

GDP • budget deficit • economic stimulus package • US gross domestic product • Office of Management and Budget • Obama administration • President Obama • Peter Orszag • White House budget director

from our news partners

Taylor Swift Grabs AMA Artist of the Year from Michael...
(1 hour, 31 minutes ago)
Michael Jackson Sets AMA Record With 2009 Wins
(3 hours, 15 minutes ago)
'New Moon' Sinks Teeth Into $140.7 Opening Weekend
(7 hours, 49 minutes ago)
Jenna Fischer Knows As Much About Her 'Office' Baby As...
(11 hours, 30 minutes ago)

So it turns out you're not fat because you're eating...
(14 minutes ago)
Not news: woman wants twins. News: woman already has thirteen...
(1 hour, 16 minutes ago)
Photoshop this immune system test [Photoshop]
(1 hour, 51 minutes ago)
Lots and lots of people would rather die than continue...
(3 hours, 35 minutes ago)

Weekend Box Office - Audiences Moon The Box Office
(1 hour, 35 minutes ago)
Could Twilight Eclipse Be R-Rated?
(1 hour, 40 minutes ago)
The Mandarin May Be In Iron Man's Future
(3 hours, 3 minutes ago)
Paul Bettany Not Yet In Iron Man 2
(4 hours, 21 minutes ago)

Associated Press

US judge says Christian group cannot challenge Obama administration stem cell...
(Oct 27, 09 6:40 PM CDT)
Electric motorcycle riders want to 'shock' Obama administration with energy...
(Oct 27, 09 5:14 PM CDT)
Obama administration makes available $3.4B for developing a 'smart' electric...
(Oct 27, 09 4:46 PM CDT)
Obama administration to reconsider rules letting truckers drive longer hours
(Oct 27, 09 3:42 PM CDT)

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most important stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Record $1.4T Deficit Imperils Recovery

Gap dwarfs FY2008 figure, spells trouble for new stimulus plans

Dems Will Regret Not Being Bolder on Economy

Voter backlash is about failure to lower unemployment

MORE ABOUT:
recession • unemployment • US economy • Paul Krugman • economic stimulus package • Obama administration • President Obama • election day November 2009

Credit Stimulus for
650K Jobs: White House

Directly or indirectly, $150B spent has had great effect, report says

MORE ABOUT:
White House • recession • economic stimulus package • job creation • Obama administration • President Obama • economic downturn • federal funding

Canada to US:
Are We Still Friends?

American protectionism worries our northern neighbor

MORE ABOUT:
Canada • NAFTA • Stephen Harper • free trade • economic stimulus package • Canadian border • US-Canadian border • spy drones • Obama administration • President Obama

GDP • budget deficit • economic stimulus package • US gross domestic product • Office of Management and Budget • Obama administration • President Obama • Peter Orszag • White House budget director

MOST POPULAR STORIES

[ By Views ]

[ By Comments ]

from our news partners

Associated Press

About

Help

Tools

Site Maps

What is Newser?

Record $1.4T Deficit Imperils Recovery

Gap dwarfs FY2008 figure, spells trouble for new stimulus plans

Related Newser Stories

PAUL KRUGMAN

Dems Will Regret Not Being Bolder on Economy

Voter backlash is about failure to lower unemployment

MORE ABOUT: recession • unemployment • US economy • Paul Krugman • economic stimulus package • Obama administration • President Obama • election day November 2009

Credit Stimulus for 650K Jobs: White House

Directly or indirectly, $150B spent has had great effect, report says

MORE ABOUT: White House • recession • economic stimulus package • job creation • Obama administration • President Obama • economic downturn • federal funding

Analysis

Canada to US: Are We Still Friends?

American protectionism worries our northern neighbor

MORE ABOUT: Canada • NAFTA • Stephen Harper • free trade • economic stimulus package • Canadian border • US-Canadian border • spy drones • Obama administration • President Obama

GDP • budget deficit • economic stimulus package • US gross domestic product • Office of Management and Budget • Obama administration • President Obama • Peter Orszag • White House budget director

MOST POPULAR STORIES

[ By Views ]

[ By Comments ]

from our news partners

Associated Press

About

Help

Tools

Site Maps

What is Newser?

MORE ABOUT:
recession • unemployment • US economy • Paul Krugman • economic stimulus package • Obama administration • President Obama • election day November 2009

Credit Stimulus for
650K Jobs: White House

MORE ABOUT:
White House • recession • economic stimulus package • job creation • Obama administration • President Obama • economic downturn • federal funding

Canada to US:
Are We Still Friends?

MORE ABOUT:
Canada • NAFTA • Stephen Harper • free trade • economic stimulus package • Canadian border • US-Canadian border • spy drones • Obama administration • President Obama