NO Republican in 50+ years left a smaller deficit than he inherited. But Obama did. [View all]

[Triana]

In 2014, Democrats were INCREDIBLY STUPID to run away from this, and from Obama. They should have run ON it, not away from it!!



RELATED:

October 28, 2014, 07:00 am
A smaller federal deficit, but Democrats won't talk about it
By John Stoehr, contributor

This time last year, focus on the federal deficit grew so intense that the government shut down for 17 costly days. House Republicans, in their belief that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) would balloon the federal deficit, refused to raise the government's borrowing limit until the healthcare law was starved of funding. President Obama refused to concede, saying he would not risk the full faith and credit of the United States, nor endanger the world economy. Obama won that standoff, but could not savor the victory. The Affordable Care Act's launch was so badly ridden with errors that within a month his polling numbers were as bad as the Republican Party's. Everyone was a loser.

Now comes news that the federal deficit is the lowest it has been since Obama took office amid a financial panic rivaled only by the Great Depression. According to an Associated Press report, the government borrowed 40 cents for every dollar spent in 2008. Now it's just 14 cents. The falling deficit, moreover, is directly attributable to Obama's domestic policies, especially the Affordable Care Act, which has slowed to a crawl the once-explosive growth of healthcare spending.

This should be good news for Democrats as we enter the final days of the midterm election season, but it's not. Indeed, nary a word has been spoken of the federal deficit — not from Republicans complaining that the deficit is still too high, and not from Democrats crowing that the president's healthcare law is helping in more ways than one. This is partly due to Republicans and their allies fomenting widespread hysteria about the very scary, but very rare, Ebola virus. It's also partly due to the president's shifting points of focus — from support of vulnerable congressional Democrats in swing states to developments in the Middle East, Ukraine and the U.S.-Mexican border.

But mostly we haven't heard a word about the deficit because the Republicans are so skilled at controlling the terms of debate. If they don't say something is a problem, then it isn't a problem. Their mastery of the narrative is evident in Obama's apparent decision not to broach the subject for fear of inviting a Republican response, as well as in the pains Democrats are taking to get as far away from the president as they can. Even as voters have to come to value, and even demand, components of the Affordable Care Act, a majority still despises the law when it's called by its other name: ObamaCare. That's enough for Democrats in tight races to flee Obama, even as his healthcare law does more to decrease the average deficit than anything done since the Ford administration.

THE REST:

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/221996-a-smaller-federal-deficit-but-democrats-wont-talk-about-it

POLITIFACT rates this as "mostly true", though argues with the reasons: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jan/20/barack-obama/barack-obama-claims-deficit-has-decreased-two-thir/

Even the stinking WSJ had to admit the deficit had shrunk: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/10/08/the-federal-deficit-is-now-smaller-than-the-average-since-the-1980s/