Inconvenient Deficit Facts

You wouldn’t know it from the public debate in Washington, to put it mildly, but the federal deficit is actually falling and falling rapidly. According to new CBO projections out today, assuming no changes to current law, this year’s deficit will be $642 billion, the lowest since 2008. Chart after the jump …

That comes out to 4.0% of GDP compared to the high of 10.1% in 2009. CBO projects that it will fall to 2.1% by 2015.