Another Trillion-Dollar Year In The Red

October 8, 2012 by Sam Rolley


It is all bad economic news for President Barack Obama as the government’s fiscal 2012 came to an end last week with a budget deficit of $1.1 trillion, the fourth trillion-dollar deficit year of the President’s Administration.

The Congressional Budget Office reported Friday that the deficit was about $200 billion lower than in fiscal 2011, but mostly due to a timing difference that added some final payments to last year because Oct. 1, 2011 fell on a weekend. Were that not the case, according to The Hill, the fiscal 2012 deficit would come in at $30 billion higher than 2011.

“President Obama famously promised to cut the deficit in half and today’s report shows that his pledge amounted to nothing more than more empty campaign rhetoric,” Kevin Smith, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said.

The CBO predicts the deficit will fall to $641 billion next year in its baseline scenario and down to $387 billion in 2014. This will only happen however if the U.S. breaches the “fiscal cliff,” allowing automatic spending cuts and tax increases to take place.

Another Trillion-Dollar Year In The Red : Personal Liberty Digest™