US govt budget deficit rises to $US587bn October 15, 20167:10am Associated Press
The US government says it ran a $US587 billion ($A772 billion) budget deficit for the just-completed fiscal year, a 34 per cent spike over last year after significant improvement from the record deficits of President Barack Obama's first years in office.
The deficit news, while sobering, does not appear bad enough to jolt a gridlocked Washington into action to stem the flow of red ink.
And in the presidential campaign, intractable budget deficits and growing debt have been mostly neglected by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
The latest figures show that the government is borrowing 15 cents of every dollar it spends. Government spending went up almost 5 per cent to $US3.9 trillion in fiscal 2016, but revenues stayed flat at $US3.3 trillion.
It is scary what these jerks are doing to the country. I saw a comic just a day or two ago on facebook that had a donkey and an elephant in water up to their chests (I think) standing next to a faucet that was running full blast and labeled Gov't Spending (I think) and the elephant is saying "we need to cut it by two drops" and the donkey says back "that's draconian, we should only cut spending by one drop." I can't find the picture again or remember the artist, it was just something posted by a friend, but I suddenly pictured that comic while reading this.
If we think of the country as a person in this sense, it's one of those over-spenders living well beyond it's means eyebrow-deep in late fees & CC debt. Realistically, we should have a much crappier financial rating like a real person would have a FICO score scraping bottom.
A good start at getting spending under control would be to outlaw piggy-backing on bills. One item per proposal only. Many things slip by to be funded because they're tacked on to a proposal and overlooked (we need to fix the deaf/dumb/blind rush passing, too) Some don't even get passed if the add-on isn't accepted, it gets kicked around and argued over until the pork is funded. That's bullshit, outlaw it. Every penny counts and a small start is better than no start. On the bright side, separation like this makes it harder to slip other tight-leash laws around unnoticed, too.