Voting On Deficit? It’s Lower Now than 3 Years Ago- By $1.089 Trillion

Late Friday afternoon, the Treasury Department published the official report on the U.S. budget deficit for the most recent fiscal year: $1.089 trillion. While that’s obviously still a very large budget shortfall, the deficit is $200 billion smaller than it was last year, and is nearly $300 billion smaller than when President Obama took office.

To add a little historical context to this, over the last four decades, only two presidents have reduced the deficit this much, this quickly: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Steve Benen explains:

As the job market improves and unemployment falls, one of the central attacks from Romney/Ryan against President Obama has to do with the deficit. The attack overlooks Paul Ryan’s role in creating the massive deficit, the inconvenient fact that Romney hasn’t presented a deficit-reduction plan, and the problem that the Romney/Ryan agenda would appear to make the deficit significantly worse, but that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

It’s worth noting, then, that as of today, the U.S. federal budget deficit has shrunk — a lot.

I put together this new chart reflecting the deficit over the course of the last four years. It starts with the figures released in 2009, when the deficit reached a record high of $1.4 trillion. Why is the column in red? Because, thanks to fiscal years, Obama inherited a deficit of nearly $1.3 trillion from Bush/Cheney the moment he took the oath of office.

This year, however, according to the official data published by the Treasury Department, the deficit was $1.089 trillion.

More here

U.S. budget deficit shrinks by over $200 billion, reaches 4-year low (maddowblog.msnbc.com)
Federal deficit cut, but tops $1 trillion for 4th year (bottomline.nbcnews.com)
The wrong issue for the wrong candidate (maddowblog.msnbc.com)

The Republicans Missed A Chance For Inclusivity- On Purpose

Sep2 by D Gregory Smith

Frank Bruni in today’s New York Times articulates beautifully the guilt and shame purveyed by the Republican party:

America (Photo credit: acb)

WHAT the Republicans painstakingly constructed here was meant to look like the biggest of tents. And still they couldn’t spare so much as a sleeping bag’s worth of space for the likes of me.

Women were welcomed. During the prime evening television hours, the convention stage was festooned with them, and when they weren’t at the microphone, they were front and center in men’s remarks. Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney both gushed about their moms in tributes as tactical as they were teary.

Latinos were plentiful and flexed their Spanish — “En América, todo es posible,” said Susana Martinez, the New Mexico governor — despite an “English First” plank in the party’s regressive platform.

And while one preconvention poll suggested that roughly zero percent of African-Americans support Romney, Republicans found several prominent black leaders to testify for him. Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, delivered what will surely be remembered as the convention’s most stirring and substantive remarks, purged of catcalls and devoid of slickly rendered fibs.

But you certainly didn’t see anyone openly gay on the stage in Tampa. More to the point, you didn’t hear mention of gays and lesbians. Scratch that: Mike Huckabee, who has completed a ratings-minded transformation from genial pol to dyspeptic pundit, made a derisive reference to President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage. We were thus allowed a fleeting moment inside the tent, only to be flogged and sent back out into the cold.

Read the whole article here.

Excluded From Inclusion – New York Times (nytimes.com)
Watch: Condoleezza Rice RNC Speech: Peace From Strength (abcnews.go.com)

Raging Against The Hate Machine

Aug29 by D Gregory Smith

In light of this:

“the Republican platform included language rejecting not just same-sex marriage but also the watered-down alternative that many elected officials find more palatable: civil unions. The GOP platform committee also defeated a proposed amendment that said all Americans should be treated “equally under the law” as long as they’re not hurting anyone else.”

I present this:

GOP Adds 3 More Anti-sexuality Planks To Platform (Bilerico)
McDonnell Touts Anti-Gay, Anti-Abortion Planks at RNC (Talking Points Memo)
Paul Ryan blasted by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello (ctvnews.ca)

Romney And Ryan: Gay Facts

Aug25 by D Gregory Smith

(Click pics for full articles by The Human Rights Campaign)

Reverse.

Aug11 by D Gregory Smith

So, what is my response to Mitt Romney picking a man who conveniently disregards his church’s teaching on universal healthcare and caring for the poor, doesn’t think women need protecting, doesn’t believe in hate crimes, supports banning of same-sex adoptions, wants to gut medicare and keep allowing corporations to buy elected offices in this country?

HRC: Paul Ryan voted against hate-crimes law, end of military ban, letting gay couples marry adopt (miamiherald.typepad.com)
Why The Paul Ryan V.P. Pick Is Actually A Huge Gift For Democrats (businessinsider.com)
I Love The Smell of Panic in the Morning (balloon-juice.com)
Mitt Romney Suddenly Decides to Support Universal Healthcare (motherjones.com)

Rehberg Didn’t Listen As “Promised”

Mar28 by D Gregory Smith

You’d think he’d be more careful in an election year- or maybe he just thinks we’re not paying attention. From The Montana Democrats:

Multimillionaire Congressman Dennis Rehberg said earlier this month that he needed to “talk to Montanans” before making a decision on his party boss’s latest attack on Medicare.

That was one week ago. The House is expected to vote today on its plan to cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare while giving tax breaks to millionaires.

And despite his promise, Congressman Rehberg still has not met with Montanans about Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to attack Medicare.

“No matter how Congressman Rehberg votes on this bill, there can be no doubt that he’s serving his own interests, not Montana’s best interests,” said Dick. “Congressman Rehberg can’t erase his record of voting against Medicare. And let’s be clear: Congressman Rehberg’s own political career is the only thing that will influence his vote on this bill.”

Congressman Rehberg has consistently supported the Ryan budget’s basic goals: Giving huge tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, while gutting health care and education. Last July, Rehberg voted for the House’s “Cap, Cut and Balance” bill which, like the current proposal, would have forced huge cuts to Medicare in order to protect tax loopholes for millionaires.

The last time Rep. Ryan’s plan to attack Medicare came before Congress, Rehberg admitted he hadn’t read the bill just days before it came up for a vote [Rehberg conference call, 4/8/11; The Hill,4/6/11].