Category Archives: Debt and deficits

Economy slowing but growing; debt just growing

Business and economics, Debt and deficits

By Steve Brawner,

© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

May 21, 2019

No one can predict the future, and that includes economists. So I’m simply going to tell you what a really smart guy said, and you can do with it what you will.

The smart guy was Bob Costello, the American Trucking Associations’ chief economist. He was in Little Rock May 16 to speak to the Arkansas Trucking Association. I should tell you I do some freelance writing for publications produced by both associations.

That stuff out of the way, here’s what he said: The economy is “slowing, but we’re still growing.” Costello does not expect a recession until 2021 or later.

If he’s right – sorry, Democrats. You can still beat President Trump, but you’ll have to do so in the face of a decent economy. No one should hope for bad economic news as a way to win an election, anyway. But if you were, you wouldn’t be the first. Continue reading Economy slowing but growing; debt just growing →

Surprise! Money did not grow on trees

Debt and deficits, Politics, U.S. Congress

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billionBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s nothing more annoying than someone saying, “I told you so,” and it gives me no pleasure to do so. Well, maybe a little, but I’d much rather be wrong.

This bittersweet moment is inspired by March’s wholly foreseeable news that the federal government’s February budget deficit was the biggest ever for that month – $234 billion.

For the year, the Trump administration projects the deficit will be $1.09 trillion, a number last seen in 2012. (The Congressional Budget Office earlier projected $897 billion.) One trillion is about $3,300 for each of us, and it all will be added to the $22 trillion national debt. Your share of that amount is a little more than $67,000 – and growing by the minute.

In fact, the Trump administration projects $1 trillion deficits for each of the next four years, but even that may be a rosy scenario. Now that we’ve reached this plateau, there’s no plan to bring us down.

Last year’s deficit was $779 billion, which was bad enough. So how’d we get from there to here? Continue reading Surprise! Money did not grow on trees →

We should have listened to George

Debt and deficits, Politics

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

With Presidents’ Day occurring last Monday, this is a good time to recall perhaps the greatest presidential address in American history: George Washington’s farewell address.

Printed in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser on Sept. 19, 1796, it started by explaining why he was not running for re-election – a decision that may have been his most important act. His willingness to give up power set a precedent that has largely guided American presidents and American politics ever since.

He expressed gratitude to his country and then offered what he called “the disinterested warnings of a parting friend.”

He urged the United States to remain united. North and South, East and West, we’re better off knitted together. Americans, he wrote, should be “indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest.” Continue reading We should have listened to George →

What’s different about this $1 trillion?

Debt and deficits, Politics, U.S. Congress

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Winter has arrived, and squirrels everywhere have enough to eat because they stored up food when it was more available in the warmer months.

We could learn a lot from those little rodent-sized brains. Instead of squirreling away our savings, we pig out on today’s and tomorrow’s resources.

This year, the federal government will run a deficit of about $970 billion, or 4.6 percent of the gross domestic product, despite a warm-weather economy that has been expanding for almost a decade. As a recent headline by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told us, “The deficit has never been this high when the economy was this strong.” Continue reading What’s different about this $1 trillion? →