US budget deficit running 11.8% higher this year

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

US budget deficit running 11.8% higher this year

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
January 12, 2020

The U.S. budget deficit through the first three months of this budget year is up 11.8% from the same period a year ago, putting the country on track to record its first $1 trillion deficit in eight years.

In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit from October through December totaled $356.6 billion, up from $318.9 billion for the same period last year.

Both government spending and revenues set records for the first three months of this budget year but spending rose at a faster clip than tax collections, pushing the deficit total up.

The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the deficit for the current 2020 budget year will hit $1 trillion and will remain over $1 trillion for the next decade. The country has not experienced $1 trillion annual deficits since the period from 2009 through 2012 following the 2008 financial crisis.

The actual deficit for the 2019 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, was $984.4 billion, up 26% from the 2018 imbalance, reflecting the impact of the $1.5 trillion tax cut President Donald Trump pushed through Congress in 2017 and increased spending for military and domestic programs that Trump accepted as part of a budget deal with Democrats.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/179b7a049feebdc199d1699408bb5310

[sandensea]

1. Thank goodness we have a Fed that can buy virtually unlimited amounts of U.S. bonds

In countries that don't, Reaganomics leads to a debt crisis and - if that's mishandled - an outright collapse.

Argentina's recent Macrisis is a very good case in point.

They're starting to recover now, under a new administration. But it may take years to recover living standards to what they were just 4 years ago.