Ah, Mueller will testify now

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/05/05/us/politics/05reuters-usa-trump-russia.html

https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Mississippi-gunned-down-outside-police-department-509522961.html

looks like another assassination of a police officer

Trump has increased fiscal stimulus massively since taking office, rivalling 2011/12 when large stimulus was needed to recover from the great recession. With unemployment at record lows and GDP growth ticking along, now should be the time to continue reducing the deficit before the next cyclical downturn comes. We're at the stage in the business cycle where a recession will likely occur in the next 5 years, and there needs to be wiggle room for fiscal stimulus when it happens.

absolutely. but it wont happen before the 2020 election for obvious reasons.

There's no evidence that Trump or his revolving door of a team will cut the deficit at any point. The tax cuts have restricted the ability of the government to generate enough revenue, despite strong economic growth it fell 0.4% in 2018.

"best economy ever!" + still not even close to a balanced budget = good fucking luck paying down that debt next generation.

this spending shit is getting nuts, and every single politician on the left is touting either MASSIVE cj or gun reform, free college, or healthcare for all. and the fiscally conservative right is dead. shit's going to be scary in a few decades if they don't find a way to chunk it.

Even if the deficit was 2% it would sustainable in the long term as GDP growth would increase tax revenue in addition to inflation reducing the real value of government debt.

I'm not advocating a balanced budget, to me that isn't even necessary for a government to pursue. It's a given that large businesses will have long term borrowings to fund their infrastructure projects, the government is no different.

yeah when i saw balanced i don't mean a true net zero. something that's sustainable forever with regards to growth and inflation. i'm not sure if that will ever happen tho, we'd be lucky just to pay down some of it. like we should be doing now.

2% would be sustainable with healthy gdp growth and low inflation and low interest rates. if inflation and interest shoot up for whatever reason, even a 2% deficit could become troubling.

I agree, however, on the implication of your post: the deficit itself is less problematic than the huge amount of accumulated public debt. financing a 2% deficit would not even be a problem with 8% interest rates if your public debt stood at 40% of the gdp. by contrast, if you're paying 800bn a year in interest despite low interest rates because you're sitting on a fucking mountain of debt, 40 trillion or so, then you're royally screwed.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on May 6 2019 11:38am

High inflation is good for borrowers (a government in this context) because it reduces the real value of their debt repayments. Interest rate rises are a threat considering they're at historic lows now, and when they rise it would most likely reduce inflation, causing a doubly whammy effect.