Evan Soltas of Wonkblog and Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider both make the same point, in more detail, that I tried to make in my series on ONE TRILLION DOLLARS: the current budget deficit is overwhelmingly the result of the depressed economy, and it’s not clear that we have a structural budget problem at all, let alone the fundamental mismatch between what we want and what we’re willing to pay for that people like to claim exists. Here’s another chart, showing the primary federal balance — that is, not counting interest payments — since 1972 (data from CBO):
On the Economics and Politics of Deficits
Current Status: Blessed (1)
Seeded by anti-status quo View Original Article: 
The New York Times
Seeded on Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:26 AM
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