The 2021 minefield
by digby
The U.S. fiscal deficit has already exceeded the full-year figure for last year, as spending growth outpaces revenue.
The gap grew to $866.8 billion in the first 10 months of the fiscal year, up 27% from the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department said in its monthly budget report on Monday. That’s wider than last fiscal year’s shortfall of $779 billion -- which was the largest federal deficit since 2012.
To think people actually took the Tea Party seriously when they caterwauled about the deficit --- during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Now, they are silent as it grows exponentially because of the GOP tax cuts for the rich. And they are fine with it.
This is going to explode in the Democrats' faces, of course. They'll be strong-armed by the media and the hypocritical Republicans and they'll probably acquiesce to the pressure. I would be very interested to hear their plans about how they will avoid that. It's a political minefield.
Personally, I'm for raising taxes on the rich to pay for new programs and when the press calls for the smelling salts about the deficit just say, "nobody said a word when Trump did it, so fuck you" but I don't know if that will fly.
*And yes, I know about MMT but nobody is educating the public and the media about that. It will sound crazy after years of deficit indoctrination.
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