{"id":38197,"date":"2017-04-19T03:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T07:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=38197"},"modified":"2017-04-18T12:11:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T16:11:28","slug":"a-graphical-representation-of-the-difference-between-the-us-federal-deficit-and-the-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2017\/04\/19\/a-graphical-representation-of-the-difference-between-the-us-federal-deficit-and-the-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"A graphical representation of the difference between the US federal deficit and the debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

In USA Today<\/em>, Jon Gabriel<\/a> shows why it’s important to know the difference between a deficit and a debt, especially when discussing the US federal government:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an imperfect analogy, but imagine the green is your salary, the yellow is the amount you\u2019re spending over your salary, and the red is your credit card statement. Then tell your spouse, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, dear, I just increased our debt ceiling with a new Visa card!\u201d<\/p>\n

The chart is brutally bipartisan. Debt increased under Republican presidents and Democratic presidents. It increased under Democratic congresses and Republican congresses. In war and in peace, in boom times and in busts, after tax hikes and tax cuts, the Potomac flowed ever deeper with red ink.<\/p>\n

Our leaders like to talk about sustainability. Forget sustainable \u2014 how is this sane?<\/p>\n

Yet when any politician hesitates before increasing spending, he\u2019s portrayed as a madman. When Paul Ryan, R\u2013Wis., offered a thoughtful plan to reduce the debt over decades, he was pushing grannies into the Grand Canyon and pantsing park rangers on the way out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that my chart will be criticized. A few on the right will say it\u2019s too tough on the GOP while those on the left will claim it doesn\u2019t matter or it\u2019s all a big lie.<\/p>\n

Wonks will say the chart should be weighted for this variable and have lines showing that trend. All are free to create their own charts to better fit their narrative, and I\u2019m sure they will. But the numbers shown can\u2019t be spun by either side.<\/p>\n

All the figures come directly from the federal government, and math doesn\u2019t care about fairness or good intentions. Spending vastly more than you have, decade after decade, is foolish when done by a Republican or a Democrat. Two plus two doesn\u2019t equal 33.2317 after you factor in a secret \u201csocial justice\u201d multiplier.<\/p>\n

And my chart doesn\u2019t mention future projections due to exploding entitlements, which Trump didn\u2019t touch. Turn to the much scarier Congressional Budget Office chart<\/a> for that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In USA Today, Jon Gabriel shows why it’s important to know the difference between a deficit and a debt, especially when discussing the US federal government: It\u2019s an imperfect analogy, but imagine the green is your salary, the yellow is the amount you\u2019re spending over your salary, and the red is your credit card statement. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,84,13],"tags":[697,71,1037],"class_list":["post-38197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-government","category-usa","tag-budget","tag-debt","tag-donaldtrump"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-9W5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38199,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38197\/revisions\/38199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}