You don't often see this, so it's worth flagging -- a genuine, consistent asshole.
The Congressional Budget Office released updated projections today to find that the federal budged deficit is smaller than at this point last year, and smaller than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis. There are three main reasons for that: the slowly-improving economy is putting more people back to work, which means fewer safety net payments and more tax revenue; defense spending cuts; and the tax hikes from January 1 2013 have gone into effect.
Conclusion?
Much of this is to be expected - as the economy recovers, there will naturally be an increase in tax revenue and a drop in social safety net spending. At least part of this, however, is due to President Obama's ideal version of a "grand bargain" on tax hikes and spending cuts - mostly tax hikes on upper income-earners and spending cuts that fall heavily on the military. It also is not a sign that President Obama is some kind of deficit hawk. He's just a textbook Keynesian.
Well, more a Cliff's Notes Keynesian, though given the dismal bog that is our anti-science Congress, whatever.
Maybe if we had real Keynesianism we'd have had actual economic growth and Amercans would have better lives!
But nah, Keynes was a fag...
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