Well, not really.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government is projected to run a deficit of just $845 billion in 2013. Furthermore, the deficit in 2014 may be as low as $616 billion.
The federal government will post an $845 billion deficit this year, the first time in five years that the shortfall has dipped below $1 trillion, though the long-term budget outlook remains grim, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In the first comprehensive analysis of the government’s finances since last month’s fiscal-cliff deal, the nonpartisan agency said a surge of tax revenues will help cut the deficit to its lowest since 2008. Next year’s shortfall will total $616 billion, according to the CBO.
Even so, the government is still projected to rack up at least $7 trillion in deficits over the next decade, which will push up the publicly held debt to $20 trillion by 2023, the CBO said.
Republicans in the House will vote this week to require that the president balance the budget within five years, and the ironic thing is that, if they get out of the way, he may do so without their petty, symbolic resolutions.
Meanwhile, Paul Ryan, the GOP’s ‘ideas guy,’ is proposing a deficit-reduction plan that would require bigger cuts than the ones he ran on in the 2012 election.