During the tumultuous political climate of the last five years, nothing has been more contentious than the U.S. budget deficit and government spending.

While Congress and the Administration have been fighting tooth and nail over this, shutting the government on several occasions and forfeiting the country’s AAA bond rating, something surprising has happened.

Both sides are bracing for a possible government shutdown again this fall and no one seems to notice that the deficit is fast disappearing.

Today, The New York Times reported in a small, single column story on the bottom of page B6 of the business section, that the deficit will shrink by 15 percent this year and by 75 percent since the first year of the Obama Administration.

As the economy healed from the Great Recession, taxes rose and spending has slowed and in some cases declined. A deficit that had reached a mind boggling $1.6 trillion is headed for $425 billion this year, down from $483 billion last fiscal year (the government year ends Sept. 30).

While still humongous in dollar terms, it’s not bad in an $18 trillion economy. After six years of spending austerity, the budget is now rising again, but still slower than revenues.

It’s not that there aren’t fiscal issues — entitlement spending still needs big changes and the government debt needs to be extended — but the fiscal crisis has ended long before the wrangling stops. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/business/economy/us-budget-deficit-rose-in-july-but-8-year-low-is-expected-for-year.html?smid=tw-share