Federal Deficits

A wave of bleak news about the stagnant economy promises to give opponents of President Obama's expansive domestic agenda more ammunition to argue that this is an inopportune time to enact overhauls of the nation's healthcare and energy policies. As part of its fiscal mid-year review, the Obama administration projected today that the United States will run a $9-trillion deficit over the next decade -- $2 trillion more than it had estimated in February when its budget initially was outlined.

Here's one way Congress can trim the nation's record deficits: Do nothing. Keeping Congress gridlocked on budget issues would cut the projected annual federal deficit in half by the next fiscal year and set the trend on a downward path for years to come. Legislation already on the books, if left alone, would do several things: Tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush's administration would expire Dec. 31, generating more revenue. And deep budget cuts passed as part of last summer's debt ceiling deal would be automatically triggered, slashing spending in 2013.

The federal deficit grew $14.6 billion in December, a decrease of 56% from November's $33.3 billion, the Treasury Department said Thursday. But fiscal 1986 so far shows no improvement over the year before. The shortfall in the first quarter of 1986 was $75 billion, compared to $71.4 billion in the same period of fiscal 1985. The latest projection by the Office of Management and Budget indicated that the 1986 deficit will reach $177.83 billion by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

The government ran up a deficit of $252.6 billion in the first six months of the 2003 budget year, nearly twice the total for the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department reported Friday. Record deficits are forecast this year and next as the government's financial situation continues to deteriorate. The deficit so far this fiscal year, from October through March, compares with a shortfall of $131.9 billion a year earlier. Revenues were down 6.1% to $825.

The Congressional Budget Office released new, higher estimates of the federal budget deficit Thursday, blaming the erosion on higher interest rates and lower-than-anticipated revenues. Since August, the deficit estimate for fiscal 1996, starting Oct. 1, has risen from $176 billion to $207 billion, and for fiscal 1997 from $193 billion to $224 billion.

Blinking mad over street ads Re "Elaborate digital signs OKd," March 30, and "L.A. reignites street ad fight," March 26 This, I must say, is a spectacularly bad idea. The billion-dollar Wilshire Grand project will have 45 and 64 stories of "thousands of tiny lights embedded in the buildings' surface" doing light shows. The first 10 floors of each building will run ads. Personally, I love colors, and light shows energize me. But the planet cannot afford such a huge misuse of energy.

Are you worried about the mortgage interest deduction going away? After all, it's a high-profile, high-cost target for federal budget cutters ? and was prominently featured in the report of the presidential deficit-reduction commission late last year. Reformers have been trying to kill or at least clamp a ceiling on these write-offs for decades. But here's an intriguing twist that has just emerged on Capitol Hill and that might bring some encouragement to homeowners, realty agents and builders who strongly oppose any cutbacks in tax benefits.

As President Obama presents his first budget today, the most daunting goal he has set may not be the ambitious proposals for economic recovery, healthcare reform or revamping the nation's energy policy. Big as those challenges are, they may be child's play compared with his promise to slash the federal budget deficit in half by the end of his first term. Two problems already are apparent if Obama is to cut the $1.3-trillion deficit to $533 billion.

As Republicans began the process of trying to repeal the healthcare reform law, the Congressional Budget Office warned Thursday morning that doing so would add to the federal deficit and expand the ranks of uninsured Americans. On the second day of the 112th Congress, Republicans moved to fulfill a campaign promise as the House Rules Committee, chaired by Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), held a hearing on HR 2, the proposed "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. " "This law is a job killer," said Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.

Federal deficit spending will rise to $1.5 trillion this year, according to a report released Wednesday. Federal deficit spending will rise to $1.5 trillion this year, according to a report released Wednesday. The report comes on the heels of President Obama's State of the Union address and in the midst of a burgeoning debate in Washington over federal budget cuts and spending, a front-line argument between Obama and congressional Republicans. The report from the Congressional Budget Office said federal debt over the next decade will continue to balloon to unsustainable levels unless federal tax and spending policies change.