Barack Obama must figure that if Americans get used to running trillion dollar deficits often enough, they simply won’t notice. After running trillion dollar deficits for the first four fiscal years of Obama’s administration, the  federal government is headed for another one for the 2013 fiscal year; the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year, which ended on December 31, showed a deficit of $293 billion.

The effects of the fiscal cliff deal on the deficit are minimal; the deal only reduces the deficit by $4 billion. The only reason the first quarter of 2013 was marginally better than the first quarter of 2012 was the increased income for the federal government due to tax hikes; Payroll and corporate income taxes grew $44 billion and $7 billion respectively.