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Congressional Budget Office: Yes, Obamacare is cutting the deficit

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ZVUGKTUBM
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/08/27/yes-obamacare-is-cutting-the-deficit/?tid=rssfeed



Today the Congressional Budget Office released its latest economic and fiscal projections, and guess what: The news is pretty good. In fact, all the “deficit hawks” out there who are deeply concerned about too much borrowing and the terrible choices our grandchildren will confront might want to write a letter of thanks to one Barack Hussein Obama.

To start things off, the CBO says the deficit this year will be $506 billion, or 2.9 percent of GDP. In 2013 it was $680 billion, so that’s a pretty steep drop. And in terms of GDP, not only is that slightly lower than the average deficit of the last 40 years (3.1 percent), it’s also a 70 percent decline from Obama’s first year in office, where because of the Great Recession, which brought both the need for more spending and a plunge in tax revenues, the deficit peaked at 9.8 percent of GDP.

We should note that a lot of people thought that the deficit was cut too fast, and that we switched prematurely from stimulus to austerity, dragging out the nation’s suffering and keeping the recovery from taking hold in a meaningful way. But whether or not you agree, you can’t say that there hasn’t been dramatic progress on reducing the deficit under this president.

The other thing to note is the CBO’s new projections on Medicare. Ask any conservative, and they’ll tell you that the real threat to our future is entitlements, and Medicare in particular. With all those Baby Boomers retiring and eating up more and more of the nation’s wealth through health care costs, Medicare will eventually devour the entire federal budget, drowning us in debt and rendering us unable to do anything except care for our elders.

But things are looking pretty good on that front as well. The New York Times’ “The Upshot” has a nice graphic showing how the CBO’s projections for future Medicare spending have gone down and down in recent years. Here’s how they describe it:

The difference between the current estimate for Medicare’s 2019 budget and the estimate for the 2019 budget four years ago is about $95 billion dollars. That sum is greater than the government is expected to spend that year on unemployment insurance, welfare and Amtrak — combined. It’s equal to about one-fifth of the expected Pentagon budget in 2019. Widely discussed policy changes, like raising the estate tax, would generate just a tiny fraction of the budget savings relative to the recent changes in Medicare’s spending estimates.

In more concrete terms, the reduced estimates mean that the federal government’s long-term budget deficit is considerably less severe than commonly thought just a few years ago. The country still faces a projected deficit in future decades, thanks mostly to the retirement of the baby boomers and the high cost of medical care, but it is not likely to require the level of fiscal pain that many assumed several years ago.

Like the program itself, the reasons for the slowdown in Medicare spending are complicated. But a big part of it is — you guessed it — the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has found direct savings in Medicare with things like cuts to some provider payments. More importantly, it has tried to achieve longer-term savings through means like encouraging hospitals to reduce readmissions (where a patient gets treated and released, then winds up back in the hospital a week later) and rolling out payment systems that promote more holistic care instead of just piling on expensive tests and procedures. It also has provisions that probably haven’t reduced spending yet but likely will eventually, like spurring the shift to electronic records.

There is a transformation going on in American medicine, one that’s slow and sometimes painful. But it is happening, and that’s in no small part because of the ACA. Health care in America isn’t going to become dirt cheap, and Medicare will still make up a substantial part of the budget in coming years. But the situation isn’t nearly as bleak as people thought it would be just a few years ago. Medicare is still the biggest driver of future deficits, but the next time you hear a conservative say we have to “rein in entitlements,” you can remind them that nothing any president has done to achieve that goal has been nearly as effective as the reforms contained within the hated Obamacare.


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ZVUGKTUBM

ZVUGKTUBM

I expect that posters Markle and PaceDog will soon appear to claim the author is lying......

Or, Markle will do some Googling to find an article that is directly opposite yours, and start a whole new thread (with one of his sensationalist thread titles, of course) to counter this one.

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2seaoat



This news with the revised GDP growth in early summer reaching over 4% makes all the baseless claims of the idiot fringe seem comical. The President's courage and fortitude in the face of stupid is even more remarkable. I feel very fortunate that we had somebody with intelligence and patience in the White House.

Guest


Guest

While it is good news that the federal budget deficit is projected to be lower than anticipated, don’t forget a couple of things:

1. Talk of the deficit is about the annual budget. So, a deficit of $506B means that the government will be spending $506B more than the revenue it takes in – mostly in the form of taxes.  For you and me that’s similar to spending $42,000 this year, but earning only $40,000; you know, spending more than we earn.

2. The national debt is something that is much greater concern than a less than anticipated budget deficit.  The US currently has a national debt of about $17.5T – that’s $17,500,000,000,000.   For regular folks, that’s like the situation above – we earn $40,000 in a year, but we have loans and credit card balances of, oh, something like $42,000.  And, btw, we’re not reducing any of the principal, so we’re only paying interest on those loans.  

boards of FL

boards of FL

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:I expect that posters Markle and PaceDog will soon appear to claim the author is lying......

Or, Markle will do some Googling to find an article that is directly opposite yours, and start a whole new thread (with one of his sensationalist thread titles, of course) to counter this one.


Actually, they will tuck tail and run - just as they do with every thread that discusses real world, legitimate data points.


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Sal

Sal

Good time to cut some taxes ....

knothead

knothead

Sal wrote:Good time to cut some taxes ....

. . . . . or make birth control a felony!

2seaoat



The national debt is something that is much greater concern than a less than anticipated budget deficit. The US currently has a national debt of about $17.5T – that’s $17,500,000,000,000.

It took thirty plus years of cutting taxes and dropping revenues to create this debt, and it will take 30 years to address the same. It starts however by cutting the deficits, and increasing revenue. Return the tax rates to where they were effective in the early eighties, and the long term debt is taken care of in thirty years.

Markle

Markle

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:I expect that posters Markle and PaceDog will soon appear to claim the author is lying......

Or, Markle will do some Googling to find an article that is directly opposite yours, and start a whole new thread (with one of his sensationalist thread titles, of course) to counter this one.

Not at all, what you discount is the fact that any and all of that money is coming from tax payers paying far more in taxes and far more in insurance premiums and far less to spend to help the economy.

Markle

Markle

2seaoat wrote:The national debt is something that is much greater concern than a less than anticipated budget deficit.  The US currently has a national debt of about $17.5T – that’s $17,500,000,000,000.  

It took thirty plus years of cutting taxes and dropping revenues to create this debt, and it will take 30 years to address the same.  It starts however by cutting the deficits, and increasing revenue.   Return the tax rates to where they were effective in the early eighties, and the long term debt is taken care of in thirty years.

No, it took 230 years to reach a debt of $10 TRILLION. Since his election in 2008, semi-retired President Barack Hussein Obama has increased that debt from $10 TRILLION to $17.7 TRILLION in less than SIX YEARS and has accomplished...nothing but put our country in a far weaker position economically, strategically, image wise and every other way.

ZVUGKTUBM

ZVUGKTUBM

Markle wrote:
2seaoat wrote:The national debt is something that is much greater concern than a less than anticipated budget deficit.  The US currently has a national debt of about $17.5T – that’s $17,500,000,000,000.  

It took thirty plus years of cutting taxes and dropping revenues to create this debt, and it will take 30 years to address the same.  It starts however by cutting the deficits, and increasing revenue.   Return the tax rates to where they were effective in the early eighties, and the long term debt is taken care of in thirty years.

No, it took 230 years to reach a debt of $10 TRILLION.  Since his election in 2008, semi-retired President Barack Hussein Obama has increased that debt from $10 TRILLION to $17.7 TRILLION in less than SIX YEARS and has accomplished...nothing but put our country in a far weaker position economically, strategically, image wise and every other way.

Congressional Budget Office:  Yes, Obamacare is cutting the deficit Df4f8708-204d-42e5-bfc3-55ebe71ff22c_zps9ea3aae1

http://www.best-electric-barbecue-grills.com

Markle

Markle

ZVUGKTUBM wrote:
Markle wrote:
2seaoat wrote:The national debt is something that is much greater concern than a less than anticipated budget deficit.  The US currently has a national debt of about $17.5T – that’s $17,500,000,000,000.  

It took thirty plus years of cutting taxes and dropping revenues to create this debt, and it will take 30 years to address the same.  It starts however by cutting the deficits, and increasing revenue.   Return the tax rates to where they were effective in the early eighties, and the long term debt is taken care of in thirty years.

No, it took 230 years to reach a debt of $10 TRILLION.  Since his election in 2008, semi-retired President Barack Hussein Obama has increased that debt from $10 TRILLION to $17.7 TRILLION in less than SIX YEARS and has accomplished...nothing but put our country in a far weaker position economically, strategically, image wise and every other way.

Congressional Budget Office:  Yes, Obamacare is cutting the deficit Df4f8708-204d-42e5-bfc3-55ebe71ff22c_zps9ea3aae1
[...]

Congressional Budget Office:  Yes, Obamacare is cutting the deficit E2454354-4d44-4ac6-9b35-84e4be224b5b

2seaoat



No, it took 230 years to reach a debt of $10 TRILLION. Since his election in 2008, semi-retired President Barack Hussein Obama has increased that debt from $10 TRILLION to $17.7 TRILLION in less than SIX YEARS and has accomplished...nothing but put our country in a far weaker position economically, strategically, image wise and every other way.


You can lie until cows can fly, but the truth is President Obama is not responsible for seven trillion of new debt. First, the 2009 budget which you try to transfer to the President was President Bush's debt adding budget. It is well documented that the President has reduced the budget as a percentage of GDP at a greater rate than any President in sixty years. The structural debt initiated by Ronald Reagan and growing like a cancer as revenue was slashed was the ONLY reason for most of that 17 trillion debt, except President Bush's tax cuts only accelerated the tragedy started with President Reagan.......and it that was not bad enough.....add a couple of wars. No the President has done the best job reducing debt in sixty years........here is the truth meter.http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/may/25/lots-heat-and-some-light-obamas-spending/

boards of FL

boards of FL

Markle wrote:
ZVUGKTUBM wrote:I expect that posters Markle and PaceDog will soon appear to claim the author is lying......

Or, Markle will do some Googling to find an article that is directly opposite yours, and start a whole new thread (with one of his sensationalist thread titles, of course) to counter this one.

Not at all, what you discount is the fact that any and all of that money is coming from tax payers paying far more in taxes and far more in insurance premiums and far less to spend to help the economy.


But the economy is growing at an annualized rate of 4.2%.  And spending by US citizens increased 4.5%.   It's almost as if you're simply making shit up as you go along.

Here, Markle.  You've been avoiding this thread but perhaps you should read it.  Lest you you look like an idiot.

https://pensacoladiscussion.forumotion.com/t16128-2014-2nd-quarter-gdp-revised-up-to-42


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