What are deficits? ?

Question

deficit funding...

deficit spending...

I hear it all the time and it just occurred to me that I don't know what it is!

Answer 1

It means that we don't have any money but keep spending it. We spend way too much money because our government is so bloated with Liberals looking for a free ride

Answer 2

Actually most people don't know what it means because it is used so often and in different ways.

The National Deficit or National debt is the total of all outstanding debt the nation has as a whole. It is not a true deficit.

Deficit spending is when the congress writes bills (laws and spending programs) and the President signs them. And the total of all the bills costs is higher than the Annual Receipts from tax revenues.

The term "The deficit" is misleading cause it can refer to either. Or a make believe/projected amount of money lost using today's numbers to make assumptions about what spending will be and what receipts will be.

That happened alot during Clinton's administration. Congress would take money from Social Security add it to the General Fund and Make 10 year projections based on those revenues. Then they would pass bills with high payout now and then reduce them in years 8, 9, and 10 (reductions never happen) and then say we had a surplus even though we were actually still operating at a deficit.

And while my answer looks anti Clinton, all administrations use creative accounting like this. A deficit isn't always bad, but a continual persistent deficit destroys future capital growth do to debt service.

Answer 3

Deficit is a deficiency, in other words, if you don't have a high enough level of calcium you have calcipinea, you haven't enough calcium.  If you don't have enough of something you have a deficit in that area.  

Answer 4

Its when you spend more money than you have, have no money in the bank, and have rely on a line of credit to keep going.

Eventually you owe more than you are worth and this called bankruptcy.  The French Monarchy and the Soviet Union both went out of existence that way.  It can happen here.

Answer 5

It means funding a war on the backs of future generations while you blame the other party for your s***w ups.

Deficits ALWAYS occur during republican presidencies.

Answer 6

It means writing checks you don't have money to cover.

Like when the Democrat Congress keeps voting to continue to fund the war in Iraq.