Buried deep in the story attached to this blog post is a number that virtually no one has noticed.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/300467-cbo-obama-budget-adds-52-trillion-in-deficits

The number is $669 billion.

That’s the newest estimate on the size of the current federal budget deficit. The Congressional Budget Office says President Obama’s budget would boost the deficit to that total and would bump it to $615 billion in 2014.

So what’s the big deal here?

The deficits have been running a trillion bucks-plus annually for the past several years. The deficit is now “down” to a “mere” $600 billion and change. And it’s projected to slide even farther in the years just ahead.

Why isn’t there any applause, especially from congressional conservatives who keep yammering about the deficit? They gripe that Barack Obama’s economic and tax policies are spending us into oblivion. With the deficit now reduced by an estimated $400 billion annually from where it was, isn’t that good news?

I’m aware, certainly, of the sequestration that’s kicked in. The mandatory budget cuts surely will have their impact. I get all that.

What I don’t get is the continuing fixation on negative happenings when something quite positive – especially to the president’s most vocal critics – is occurring right under their noses.