To be clear, I am not one who is greatly concerned about the size of the federal deficit, but I would like to highlight this for a specific reason.
Previous projections put this year's budget deficit at a new low point, but then Congress successfully passed a big spending package.
The new estimates mark an abrupt shift from CBO estimates released in August, when the agency lowered its projections for the deficit by about a half-trillion dollars. That figure was a seven-year low for the government’s annual budget shortfalls.
Since then, President Obama and GOP leaders negotiated a massive $680 billion spending and tax package that included retroactive tax breaks for companies and individuals.
Accounting for that legislation, the newest CBO estimates reflect a deficit $130 billion larger than its projections in August.
President Obama and Congressional Democrats did agree to give the GOP some of the tax cuts they've been clamoring for, but they also negotiated an end to sequestration which will open the doorway to higher spending on social programs.
I would say the pros outweigh the cons, but I just want to make it clear that deficit hysteria is dead and buried. This year's (higher) deficit has Republican fingerprints all over it. They control both chambers of Congress and this is what they wanted.
I anticipate this will be used against Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at some point. The first deficit hike in years came under his watch and that's really quite amusing when you look at it that way because Ryan has been cast as the most serious deficit spending hawk in Congress since at least 2011 when he first introduced his Path to Poverty budget blueprint. That's why Mitt Romney chose him as his running mate and why House Republicans chose him to serve as their Speaker, is it not?
Paul Ryan is a fraud.