Deficit Down Under Democrats. Biggest Cause Isn’t Spending; It’s Lack Of Tax Receipts

Justin Fox of Reuters did some number crunching and discovered that the deficit went from $1.416 trillion in 2009 to $1.294 trillion in 2010. But why is it so big? (h/t Political Wire)

To find out, I created a fantasy world. I figured out how fast federal spending and revenue grew over the last business cycle, from 2000 through 2007, and calculated where we’d be today if those growth rates had continued through 2010….In my no-financial-crisis, no-bailout, no-recession, no-stimulus scenario, spending kept growing at 6.22% a year, and revenue kept growing at 3.45%.

…

Where would it have left us in fiscal 2010? With $2.843 trillion in federal revenue and $3.270 trillion in spending, leaving a deficit of $427 billion. The actual revenue and spending totals for 2010 were $2.162 trillion and $3.456 trillion. So spending was $186 billion higher than if we’d stuck to the trend, and revenue was $681 billion lower. In other words, the giant deficit is mainly the result of the collapse in tax receipts brought on by the recession, not the increase in spending. Nice to know, huh?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.