Over at Calculated Risk, Bill McBride quotes a Goldman Sachs analyst about the rapidly shrinking federal deficit—down from 10.1 percent to 5.7 percent last year, and then down again to 4.5 percent following the fiscal cliff deal—and notes that this hasn’t gotten much attention:
It shocks people when I tell them the deficit as a percent of GDP is already close to being cut in half (this doesn’t seem to ever make headlines). As Hatzius notes, the deficit is currently running
under half the peak of the fiscal 2009 budget and will probably decline further over the next few years with no additional policy changes.
It’s true that this doesn’t get much attention. So how about a simple chart instead? This isn’t from a Goldman Sachs report that only a select few have access to, it’s from the most recent CBO budget outlook. Anyone who cares just needs to click the link to see it. Pass this along to your friends when they ask you about the monstrous federal deficit and how we’re bankrupting our children.