We appear set to have yet another debt ceiling fight, so let me repeat what I have said in previous situations when a debt ceiling fight was pending: Having a debt ceiling fight is a terribly dumb idea. It brings about financial uncertainty, it flirts with yet another downgrade of America's credit rating, and failing to raise the debt ceiling only serves to make our country a deadbeat. We are not, after all, raising the debt ceiling in order to have money for new spending, rather, we are raising the debt ceiling in order to have money to pay for all of the things we have already charged to the national credit card.
Is Our Deficits Shrinking?
President Obama claims that they are. Keith Hennessey has a better grasp on the facts:
CBO projects that under current law we would have a deficit of 4% of GDP for 2013, meaning that our debt/GDP will continue to rise. CBO further projects that under the President’s budget we would have a deficit of 4.2% of GDP for 2013, slightly higher than their projected deficit under current law.
President Obama’s words: Our deficits are shrinking at the fastest rate in decades.
Translation 1: The rate at which we’re rolling backwards is slowing dramatically.
or Translation 2: Our debt problem is getting worse much more slowly than in recent years.
That is not something you should boast about. You’re supposed to boast when things are getting better, not when they’re getting worse more slowly.