Cameron Smith: President’s budget tests resolve of American people

  On February 14, 2011, President Obama delivered to Congress a $3.7 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 (FY2012). Rather than respond to the American people and demonstrate lessons learned from the stinging rebuke of the last election cycle, the President asked for more deficit spending and continued to avoid politically difficult choices.

  The Washington debt culture depends on many Americans misunderstanding the relationship between a deficit and the national debt. A deficit or surplus is the difference between what the government takes in and what the government spends IN ONE YEAR.  If the government takes in more than it spends, the government has a surplus. When the opposite is true, the government has a deficit. When the amounts are the same, the government has a balanced budget. The national debt is basically the accumulation of repeated deficits.