SALON

Monday, Oct 1, 2012 4:30 PM UTC

THE RACE: Deficits to be hot topic in 1st debate

By

Topics: From the Wires,

THE RACE: Deficits to be hot topic in 1st debatePresident Barack Obama, center, on stage with members of the Mexican pop rock band Mana, during a campaign event in Desert Pines High School, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012 in Las Vegas. With Obama are from left to right, Sergio Vallín, Fher Olvera, Juan Calleros, and Alex González. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Credit: AP)

As both presidential candidates dug in for debate preparations, a new budget year began Monday with little fanfare, resetting the federal deficit clock to once again begin its steep annual ascent.

The economy’s painfully slow recovery and soaring deficits will be major topics in Denver at Wednesday’s first presidential debate, to focus on domestic issues.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney both have pledged to reduce deficits and shrink the national debt if elected. But neither has offered detailed plans to do either anytime soon.

Shortly after his inauguration in January 2009, Obama pledged to cut the budget deficit, then $1.3 trillion, in half by the end of his first term.

When fiscal 2012 ended at midnight Sunday, the outgoing 12-month yearly deficit was again $1.3 trillion — the fourth consecutive year it has exceeded $1 trillion.

The deficits have helped push the national debt to a shade over $16 trillion, up from $10.7 trillion when Obama took office.

The White House predicts the deficit will fall below $1 trillion in this new budget year — but not by much — to $901 billion.

Obama has long since stopped talking up his old goal of reducing deficits in half. Now, he generally speaks of cutting them by a cumulative $4 trillion or so over the next 10 years.

Romney proposes capping federal spending at 20 percent of economic output, or gross domestic product, by the end of his first term. By contrast, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that Obama’s programs would bring government spending to 22 percent of GDP.

Spending is now running around 23 percent of GDP.

Obama was working with his debate team at a Nevada resort. Romney was practicing in Massachusetts, then flying to Denver for an evening rally and more debate practice.

_____________

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum. For more AP political coverage, look for the 2012 Presidential Race in AP Mobile’s Big Stories section. Also follow https://twitter.com/APcampaign and AP journalists covering the campaign: https://twitter.com/AP/ap-campaign-2012

More Tom Raum.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Developers evict historic women’s shelter to build luxury hotel - The 104-yr-old Anna Louise Inn has ended its 2-year legal battle with a Fortune 500 company & will now move. Many view the victory of the insurance company over a community touchstone as a major blow to the city.
33 points34 points | 2 comments
vote
From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science? An interesting question.
35 points36 points | 51 comments
vote
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
32 points33 points | 34 comments
vote
I don’t hate millennials anymore! <--- not my words, but good read on Gen X. IMO
15 points16 points | comment
vote
From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science? What are the policy implications of catering to the Deniers?
12 points13 points | 7 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations