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2009 Trade Deficit
In 2009 the trade deficit significantly decreased. A major source of this decrease was a decrease of oil imports making up about half of the decrease. This decrease in the trade deficit wasn't actually a good thing however because it was sharp change as a result of recession and overall less trade. Another issue within the change is that of non-oil trade China's share of trade rose to 80%. This is a trade deficit because the US is importing much more than exporting. -
American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (Budget)
Obama signed an economic stimulus package that was meant to help the American people recover from the recession in 2008. This stimulus package would help ease the negative effects of the Great Recession by saving from 900,000 to 2.3 million jobs. It also helped to restore trust in the financial industry. This would be a budget deficit because in providing this amount of assistance to the American people, the United States government added around $831 billion to the national debt as a result. -
2008 Financial crisis (Saving Deficit)
Bailing out the large banks was meant to revive the banking system in the United States and to allow people to actually withdraw their money from the banks as they were “too big to fail”. This lead to a further deficit of $700 billion for the United States government. However, this would be considered a savings deficit event because it was caused by consumers borrowing money from the banks and not being able to make any payments on it. This led to the banks failing after the financial crisis. -
Obama (Leadership)
Obama gave out tax cuts. Previously, under Bush’s presidency, the yearly deficit had decreased to around 200 billion dollars. However, when Obama gave tax cuts, he decreased the total revenue of the country. On top of this, he approved an 800 billion spending bill which attempted to grow the economy. For the few years after this incident, total spending increased steadily, and revenue decreased. Due to these leadership choices, the national debt has doubled from 9 trillion to around 19 trillion. -
Iraq and Afghanistan (Budget Deficit)
In 2013 America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which America has been fighting for over a decade, have totaled approximately $2 trillion in war debt. In the fiscal year 2011, the Iraq and Afghan wars had cost the U.S. $1.15 trillion. They are still paying money for the troops and their arsenals adding more than $6 trillion in future. which would end up in more war debts are than other budget deficits. The US war debts were roughly about 20 percent of total amount added to US National debt. -
Government Shutdown (Budget Deficit)
Due to congress's inability to pass a yearly national budget, the government has always overspent. In 2013, congress was unable to pass a bill that directed money for various public services, and the government shut down for a few days. Due to this budgeting deficit, the government has shown its inability to operate the country.
