US budget deficit down more than 31% in first 6 months of FY2014

[Mordecai]

... and if only taxes were LOWER, then there would be more economic activity and therefore they're generate higher revenues from a lower base... I mean duh.

Again... the fact that this deficit reduction is coming off the back of greater economic activity and NOT gutting spending any further is a good news story. But the ideologues will never be happy.

It has nothing to do with ideology.

If you eat 3,000 calories per day, you're going to have to burn calories to maintain healthy weight. You can lift weights to increase work output and gain muscle mass. You can run and do cardio training to increase work output and endurance. You can walk around in circles, which burns insufficient calories, and only makes you good at walking in circles.

Republicans are the people who say "If we're not going to change our workout regimen, we might as well cut government caloric intake to 2,000 calories per day, and stop walking circles". Democrats are the people who say "I can't believe Republicans think there is something better than walking in circles".

Doesn't that have everything to do with ideology though? That whole "starve the beast" mentality of manufacturing a crisis that you can claim to have a solution to?

[Mordecai]

Doesn't that have everything to do with ideology though? That whole "starve the beast" mentality of manufacturing a crisis that you can claim to have a solution to?

It's basic budgetary/economic science and relatively uncontroversial normative evaluations of utility or public good. The US federal government spends $3,300 per capita on healthcare. With healthcare funding, the government managed to cover about 1/3 of the population. Almost none of the 1/3 are workers. In Australia, you spend roughly $3,800 per capita (public and private, PPP$). Your Medicare system covers everyone, particularly people who work, and Australians have access to subsidized, cost-controlled private insurance through Medibank (public option). Australia also has subsidized prescription drugs for all. 

Consider the sloth of our government healthcare bureaucrats, then ask yourself if withdrawing funding is starving the beast. They are so sedentary, it's difficult to tell if they are still alive. For what they are being fed, a competent national government could deliver healthcare for everyone, yet DC can't make it happen without raising taxes and fees on the American people. American progressives are just dicking around. It's how they operate. It's what they do. They invent new ways to take money without lifting a finger on behalf of the people. When they get caught, they point to the heartless conservatives. It works every time.

What American would believe that our system needs more funding? Only those who are voting to give away other people's money.

Avoid budget propaganda in the future, too. See the debt between 2004-2008? The Bush administration ran deficits without increase debt/GDP ratio. If deficits are acting as a growth multiplier, tax cuts are not increasing the national debt. When you see that kind of politically-motivated analysis, you can throw out all of their forecasts.

So the answer is "Yes, it does have everything to do with ideology". Starve the beast, create a budget crisis to blame on the next guy, then use it as an excuse to dismantle social welfare while opposing attempts to reform health insurance. Gotcha.