Month: October 2013

News You Won’t See on Fox: U.S. Deficit Is Now at a Five-Year Low

Jon Ponder

According to the Associated Press:

For the first time in five years, the U.S. government has run a budget deficit below $1 trillion.

The government says the deficit for the 2013 budget year totaled $680.3 billion, down from $1.09 trillion in 2012. That’s the smallest imbalance since 2008, when the government ran a $458.6 billion deficit.

Steve Benen at MaddowBlog:

[…]

Cook: 2014 Is a Make-or-Break Year for Senate Republicans

Buck Banks

The reason next year is so make-or-break for Senate Republicans is because in 2016, when all of the seats they won in 2010 come up — they netted a six-seat net gain that year — there will be 24 GOP seats up, compared with only 10 for Democrats, leading to some serious Republican overexposure. Seven of the 24 GOP senators up are hailing from states that Obama carried in 2012. After having had plentiful Democratic targets in 2012 and 2014, it will be Republicans in 2016 who will have the most incumbents in the crosshairs.

— Charlie Cook, noting the 2014 midterm elections may the the GOP’s last chance to take back control of the Senate for years.

Ted Cruz Is Covered under His Wife’s Goldman Sach’s Gold-Plated Health Insurance Policy

Jon Ponder

$40,000

Annual cost of health-insurance premiums paid by Goldman Sachs to cover Canadian Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) and his family. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, is the managing director of the Houston branch of Goldman Sachs, which received a $12.9 billion payout from the government’s bailout of AIG in 2008. The New York Times reported in 2009 that Goldman Sachs’ plans for executives and managing directors are worth $40,000.