…or in other words, $670,000 millions of dollars — for perspective’s sake.

The Congressional Budget Office has forecast that the annual deficit will be $670 billion when the budget year ends Sept. 30, far below last year’s $1.09 trillion. It would mark the first year that the gap between spending and revenue has been below $1 trillion since 2008.

Steady economic growth, higher taxes, lower government spending and increased dividends from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have helped shrink the deficit.

Still, looming budget fights in Congress are complicating the picture. When lawmakers return from their recess in September, they will need to increase the government’s borrowing limit. They will also have to approve a spending plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. Republicans and Democrats remain far apart on both measures.

Now you understand why folks in Washington are more than happy to wait out the storm — when a $16 trillion economy gets roaring, you can fix a multitude of broken systems rather quickly by throwing money at it… until the next recession, that is.

Of course, it’s a damn shame that Obama has decided to create an underclass of 30-hour jobs via Obamacare… not satisfied with the fact that America’s middle class is rather satisfied, the Obama administration has to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of a disappearing middle class by using Obamacare’s leverage against employers to create those jobs.  Disgusting… and the lack of outrage on the left is even more disgusting, because it’s their side doing it.  Therefore, not even a whine from the left.

…but you could imagine the uproar from the right.  Goes to show that conservatives are far better at policing their own (and intellectually, more honest and rigorous) than the political left is within their camp.  I worry deeply that the proliferation of 30-hour jobs amidst a growing economy only creates a permanent underclass that Democrats will hypocritically blame the political right for.

That’s not American, and Republicans have a moral duty to fix it — either through a government shutdown now, or rapid and systemic reform later.