Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

How Do We Keep Getting the Deficit So Wrong?

Jonathan Bernstein's morning links.

It's not that hard to figure out.

Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images
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I really don't understand why it's so hard for some in the media to figure out the score on the parties and federal budget deficits.

The U.S. federal budget deficit is going up. That's according to a projection from a group selling (some) anti-deficit policy, but it's not really a surprise, what with a large tax cut just having passed. I'm not a deficit hawk, so I'm not particularly upset by large deficits in the abstract. But I can't understand how Susan Cornwell of Reuters can say this is "a basic shift for the Republican Party, which has traditionally prided itself on fiscal conservatism."