The Government had introduced tax legislation aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit.

Good and Bad Deficits

According to the Public Auditor, the Government of Guam already faced a significant deficit in early January 2005, on the order of 300 million. It was noted that the 300 million deficit did not take into account millions of dollars of unpaid tax refunds and pending earned income tax credits, which has been an outstanding issue in Guam.

We can apply this reasoning to the United States unsustainable fiscal deficit. As is well known, closing this deficit requires less spending or more taxes.

However, the key objective of reducing the public deficit in 1996 was not met, 47 per cent actual compared to 38 per cent planned (actual deficit in 1995 was 57 per cent and in 1994 it was 47 per cent).

A deficit?

America s gravest fiscal problem is the short and medium run deficit between tax revenues and spending. This deficit is entirely of Bush s own creation, having enacted and now seeking to extend tax cuts that are not cuts at all, because they merely shift the burden of fiscal consolidation onto future generations.

By the end of 1996, according to the Guam Finance Commission, the deficit was down to approximately 90 million.12 Deficits have resulted from a steady rise in government spending at the same time that the tax base has fluctuated with changes in business cycle.13

BERKELEY The United States is beset by four deficits a fiscal deficit, a jobs deficit, a deficit in public investment, and an opportunity deficit. The budget proposals put forward by presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, could reduce the fiscal deficit, but would exacerbate the other three.

12. The Government is taking stringent measures aimed at collecting taxes due from local businesses in order to alleviate the Territory s deficit.

Output growth in the US remains anemic, and the economy continues to face three significant deficits a jobs deficit, an investment deficit, and a long run fiscal deficit, none of which is likely to be addressed in an election year.

With respect to Africa s own progress on tariff reduction, the international community should be sensitive to the possible impact of tariff reduction on budget revenues, fiscal deficits, macroeconomic instability and debt service burden.

The Energy Deficit

Budget deficit

Fiscal consolidation. Large budget deficits are absorbing the national savings that should be used to expand business investment, and are increasing the national debt that will have to be financed by future taxes.

The Sino American Trust Deficit

The Global Trust Deficit

Statement XLII (concluded)

(Signed) Jean Pierre Halbwachs

America s Misplaced Deficit Complacency

America s Three Deficits

Europe needs to make up its mind

Europe s Trust Deficit

Loving America s Deficits

3. Projected operating deficit

3. Projected operating deficit

America s current account deficit, which was an alarming 5.8 of GDP as recently as 2006, has now shrunk to just 2.7 of GDP a level that the US can easily finance from its royalty income and returns on prior foreign investments without incurring additional foreign debt. Even more impressive, China s current account surplus, which reached an extraordinary 10 of GDP in 2007, is now barely 2.5 of national income.

For example, we can choose how much to collect via a general income tax, a payroll tax, a consumption tax (such as a sales or value added tax), and so on. We can also choose how much revenue to raise today, rather than in the future (by varying the fiscal deficit).

Better Red than Dead?

What is the Deficit Endgame?

3. Projected operating deficit

3. Projected operating deficit

3. Projected operating deficit

So, how should the US economy s jobs deficit, investment deficit, and long run fiscal deficit be addressed?

Because of economic recession, it was often not possible to reduce budget deficits, either by reducing government expenditures or by increasing taxes.

Lowering taxes on the poor and raising unemployment benefits while simultaneously increasing taxes on the rich can stimulate the economy, reduce the deficit, and reduce inequality. Cutting expenditures on the Iraq war and increasing expenditures on education can simultaneously increase output in the short and long run and reduce the deficit.

It perpetuates deficit spending.

America u0027s Other 87 Deficits

Who Will Run the World s Deficits?

Closing America s Jobs Deficit

3. Projected operating deficit

In other words, the deficit situation and the cash problem had become more closely interlinked.

Romney has provided few details about his deficit reduction plan. But, based on what he has revealed, we know that it would increase the jobs deficit, the investment deficit, and the opportunity deficit, with negative consequences for future growth and prosperity.

Although determining what was a sustainable deficit might not be an easy task, awareness of that vulnerability could lead authorities to limit the current deficit to a certain level.

We have vast budget deficits.