Fort Osage Updates- 1/10

Spending
Up
New budget deal will not stop long term spending
De Rugy 13
VERONIQUE DE RUGY, (senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason
University), The One Thing Both Parties Agree On: More Spending, December 23, 2013,
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2013/12/23/the-ryan-murray-
budget-deal-shows-both-parties-want-more-spending, January 9, 14, TL
On Dec. 10, Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Patty Murray and House Budget Committee
chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. Coming after partisan gridlock and political
incentives prevented Congress from enacting a constitutionally required budget for almost half a decade, the Ryan-Murray plan
was sold as a great budget compromise. It is not. A budget compromise would mean Democrats agreeing to reform entitlements
while Republicans would be willing to stick to defense budget cuts. Instead, the deal is more of the same: more spending today in
exchange for spending cuts tomorrow. In practice, increasing spending has sadly been an area of actual
agreement between the two parties in spite of their different rhetoric on the issue. And
make no mistake. Even though the whole thing is presented as a deficit-reducing deal, the
extensive use of gimmicks (such as paying for one year of spending with ten years of supposed cuts) and
increased revenue makes it anything but fiscally responsible.

Down
Government spending down- Deficit reduction
Lawder 1/8
David Lawder, (Reuters staff), U.S. Oct-Dec budget deficit narrows sharply: CBO, Jan 8, 2014,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/08/us-usa-fiscal-deficit-idUSBREA071LQ20140108,
January 9, 14, TL
(Reuters) - The U.S. government's budget deficit fell by more than a third in the first three
months of fiscal 2014 to $182 billion, including a $44 billion surplus in December, the Congressional Budget Office
estimated on Wednesday. The cumulative budget gap for October, November and December was
$111 billion below the year-ago-period, continuing a trend of shrinking deficits due to an
improving economy and higher tax collections. Net revenues rose 7.7 percent, or $38 billion, in the October-
December period, mostly because of higher social insurance taxes after a temporary reduction expired at the end of 2012, CBO
said. Outlays for the three-month period fell by 7 percent, or $62 billion, as military spending fell $11 billion,
unemployment benefits fell $4 billion and net interest on the public debt fell by $7 billion.
Government controlled mortgage finance groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also contributed $34 billion more to the Treasury
than during the year-ago period as their net worth improved. The $44 billion December surplus compares with a $1 billion deficit
a year earlier, the CBO said, even though revenues in December 2012 benefited from stronger realization of income by wealthy
individuals hoping to avoid tax increases in January 2013. The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to report official budget
figures for December and the first three months of the 2014 fiscal year on January 13.
Economy
Good
Economy up now- multiple indicators
Egan 14
Matt Egan, (Staff), U.S. Economic Growth Outlook Brightens, January 09, 2014,
http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2014/01/09/us-economic-growth-outlook-
brightens/, January 9, 14, TL
In recent days, investors learned that private-sector employment soared by 200,000 for the
third month in a row and the U.S. trade deficit shrank to levels unseen in four years thanks
to soaring energy exports. Combined with relative quiet on the fiscal front, the upbeat
economic headlines have prompted forecasters to ramp up growth estimates. This could
free up the Federal Reserve to end quantitative easing later this year and add further fuel to
the red-hot stock market. Growth appears to be accelerating, Michael Wilson, chief
investment officer at Morgan Stanleys (MS) wealth management arm, wrote in a note to
clients this week. We are now five years into the recovery from the financial crisis and the
economy may finally be achieving some self-sustaining momentum. Economists continue to
sound a rosier tune on U.S. growth prospects. Earlier this week, Barclays (BCS) made a huge
revision to its forecast by doubling its call for fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth
to 3% from just 1.5%. Macroeconomic Advisers boosted its fourth-quarter GDP forecast to
3.5%. Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial (PNC), said he grew more optimistic
than the consensus weeks ago.

Bad
Economy hurting now- THE POLAR VORTEX lost us 5 billion
AP 14
Associated Press, (News outlet), Cost of the cold: 'polar vortex' spell cost US economy $5bn,
Thursday 9 January 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/09/polar-vortex-cost-
us-economy-5bn, January 9, 14, TL
Hunkering down at home rather than going to work, canceling thousands of flights and repairing burst pipes
from the midwest to the south-east has its price. By one estimate, about $5bn. The country may be warming up
from the polar vortex , but the bone-chilling cold, snow and ice that gripped much of the country
affecting about 200 million people brought about the biggest economic disruption delivered by the
weather since superstorm Sandy in 2012, said Evan Gold, senior vice-president at Planalytics, a business weather
intelligence company in suburban Philadelphia. While the impact came nowhere close to Sandy, which caused an estimated
$65bn in property damage alone, the deep freeze's impact came from its breadth. "There's a lot of economic
activity that didn't happen," Gold said. "Some of that will be made up but some of it just
gets lost."