Congress Keeps Spending and the Media Keeps Confusing the Numbers

There is no better argument in favor of the Tea Party and grassroots movement conservative agenda than the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate of this fiscal year’s federal budget deficit, which is at $1.1 trillion and counting. This figure was revised upward from a previous estimate of $973 billion.

Just in case there’s any confusion about what that means -- it means our congressional spending problem has gotten worse, a lot worse, since the previous estimate.

But you would never get that impression from the headlines in much of the establishment media. “U.S. Deficit Falls Slightly to $1.1 trillion” blared NBC News, The Washington Post headlined the news as the smallest deficit since 2009, and “Budget Deficit Tops $1 Trillion, but Is Falling, Report Says” headlined The New York Times.

While it is true that if the projections hold, and the earlier one did not, the deficit is most likely going to be the smallest since Obama took office. But it is still going to be well over $1 trillion, and trending in the wrong direction for the fiscal year.

The CBO report went on to note that, this year’s expected deficit of $1.1 trillion would amount to 7 percent of the economy, and while it is likely to be lower than last year’s deficit, it is still higher than any deficit between 1947 and 2008.

Buried down deep in The New York Times and other establishment media articles was a brief paragraph that told the real story of the deficit. Total federal revenues declined in the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years and are just now returning to the level recorded in 2008, but spending has continued unabated and under current policies, will continue to outpace revenues for the foreseeable future.

So what does all the “good news” on the deficit really mean? It means, based on the policies in effect under Obama (and today’s spend-and-borrow Congress), the government will need to continue borrowing to fill the gap between spending and revenues, and the total federal debt. The accumulated total of such borrowing will rise to $21.6 trillion in 2022, from the current level of $15.2 trillion.

Washington’s establishment media and political elite know this can’t continue, but Capitol Hill Republican leaders simply do not have the courage to end this slow national suicide. While the media may do its best to make the continuation of the spending crisis look like good news, Tea Partiers and small government constitutional conservatives understand the difference between the deals the establishment makes to get themselves past the next election and devising a real solution to the spending disaster that has engulfed America since Obama was elected President.