YES, PRESIDENT OBAMA IS MAKING A DENT

In the FYI category, President Obama has had several policy victories to brag about (in spite of Republican obstructionism). Here they are:

TAXES ON THE SUPER RICH HAVE INCREASED: Through Obamacare tax hikes and hundreds of billions more in the fiscal cliff deal, the super rich (top 1%) have seen their share of taxes increase on average from 28% to 36% (though the rate is still smaller than it was between 1940 and the late 1970s).  

NO TAX HOLIDAY FOR THE MULTINATIONALS: In spite of asking and pushing President Obama on the issue, multinational corporations in the U.S. have yet to receive the tax holiday they want to bring foreign earnings back to the United States.  

SPENDING ON HEALTH FOR CHILDREN AND THE POOR TO INCREASE: Spending on Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is scheduled to increase by $710 billion over the next ten years.

And make no mistake about it, the spending increases on the poor for both Medicaid and the CHIP program are paid for with new taxes and savings in spending that President Obama has orchestrated. All of this helps to explain why we will see our budget deficit in 2013 fall below $1 trillion for the first time since President Obama inherited President Bush's trillion dollar run away train deficits.

So, yeah, President Obama is making a dent.

- Mark