Michael Linden and Michael Ettlinger provide us today with a handy chart of all the deficit reduction we’ve implemented over the past couple of years. In all, we’ve reduced spending by $1.8 trillion and increased taxes by $600 billion, for a total of $2.4 trillion. More details here. This may not be the grand bargain of Beltway dreams, but it’s pretty good progress in a short period of time.
And three-quarters of it has been from spending cuts. If you’re wondering why President Obama thinks the sequestration negotiations should include a balance of both spending reductions and tax increases, now you know.
We have a new comment system! We are now using Coral, from Vox Media, for comments on all new articles. We'd love your feedback.