U.S. budget deficit widens to fifth-highest ever, CBO reports

[riversedge]

Source: Marketwatch.com




Published: Sept 11, 2018 10:36 a.m. ET



The numbers: The U.S. budget deficit in August was $211 billion, nearly double the gap during the year-ago month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated late Monday.

Adjusted for shifts in the timing of payments that otherwise would have occurred on a weekend of holiday, the deficit would have grown by 19%. The Treasury Department will report final official numbers on Thursday, and they are usually very similar to the CBO’s.

What happened: Excluding timing shifts, outlays grew 8%, as the net interest on public debt jumped 25%, defense spending jumped 10%, outlays for Social Security grew 5%, and outlays for Medicare benefits rose 7%. There also was an Agriculture Department downward adjustment made in the year-ago August. One boost to government finances was an increase in spectrum payments to the Federal Communications Commission.

Receipts fell by 3%, with corporate taxes dropping by $5 billion, while revenue from income and payroll taxes rose marginally......

Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-budget-deficit-widens-to-fifth-highest-ever-cbo-reports-2018-09-11

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and still no infrastructure bill from Trump as he had promised.


?uuid=11600f50-c6cb-11e6-a0df-001cc448aede

Donald Trump with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook and Oracle CEO Safra Catz in 2016. Corporate taxes paid by companies including Apple have dropped sharply after the tax-cut law Trump signed.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

John Dodge
? @Sanityreturn2us
3h3 hours ago
Replying to @axios @mujer_lg

But Trump's "it'll be so easy to erase the debt in 8 years" is still on schedule right?
9 replies 11 retweets 140 likes
Boschii
? @Boschii
3h3 hours ago

It's just ahead of Infrastructure Week, and Infrastructure Week, oh...and Infrastructure Week.
2 replies 5 retweets 115 likes
John Dodge
? @Sanityreturn2us
3h3 hours ago

Yes. "World class infrastructure will be so easy to do" too. Year 2 and we're already up to tax cut for wealthy, deregulation and....and...and bunch of secret easy stuff.

[guillaumeb]

1. Clearly the fault of Obama?!?

That will be the GOP explanation.

[The Liberal Lion]

2. Hmm, interesting but the orange mental midget doesn't seem to be bragging about this record.

[elmac]

3. good time to cut more taxes, make ameriKa great again

[House of Roberts]

4. Time to party

like it's 1929!!!

[flamin lib]

5. Every time Republicans are in charge they make a mess of things.

Then Democrats get elected and do the hard things to clean it up. Then Republicans run against them saying, ' See what they did!'.

[AncientGeezer]

6. It should be pointed out this has to be a mistake or the dumbest thing ever on twitter

Not the Axios tweet, we know that's happening.. but the reply to it of only 2 in 40yrs.. deficit reduction reply.

Link to tweet

[progree]

11. Isn't it true that Clinton and Obama were the only two in 40 years

to leave the White House with a smaller annual deficit than when they came in?

Not to be confused with the national debt, which has gone up with all presidents.

[cstanleytech]

7. I am convinced the Repugnants are trying to drive our country into the ground and bankrupt it so

that they and their wealthy backers can sweep in after the countries economy collapses and buy up things such peoples homes that are foreclosed on due to said collapse.

[SergeStorms]

12. Not to mention....

pocketing the Social Security trust funds. They've wanted those for 40 years or more.

[Fred Sanders]

8. Income dropped by 3%....5% adjusted for inflation...in a good economy is a huge warning.

[SWBTATTReg]

9. Yes, and I have heard others w/ a regular pay check (I'm retired) complain about even less ...

money available to pay the bills, since things gotten more expensive, so all of the jury rigging by the repugs in this so called tax cut went to a totally different audience and not us. The jury rigging gave us (the bulk of us) a very minor if any pay increase, but costs being increased along the way, and got passed to us via higher prices.

Surprising being that businesses are having better tax rates due to the tax cuts, but aren't passing them along to consumers but to their owners/stock markets/etc. As a matter of fact, as I have mentioned above, costs have increased for a variety of things also.

This is, I feel, that there are relative fewer political ads toting the 2018 tax cut benefits too much. There is one ad I see but not much compared to the rest of the ads I see (which don't even deal w/ the 2018 tax cut at all). Also, I don't see a lot of them touting their so called 'rump' support or the like. Trying to avoid mentioning his name/use him.

[SergeStorms]

13. And you can bet....

Seniors won't get a COLA in Social Security payments for yet another year.

[progree]

10. The part of the article about the first 11 months of the fiscal year is even more scary (to me)

Month over month comparisons tend to be highly volatile because of special factors. These somewhat even out the longer the comparison periods.

In my 4 paragraphs, I'm going to focus on the 11 months of this fiscal year vs. the first 11 months of the last fiscal year.

U.S. budget deficit widens to fifth-highest ever, CBO Reports, MarketWatch, 9/11/18

... The Treasury Department will report final official numbers on Thursday, and they are usually very similar to the CBO’s.

... The big picture: The budget deficit is widening in a big way. In the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the deficit was $895 billion, which is $222 billion more than the previous year (that's a 33% increase -Progree). Outlays have climbed 7% while revenue rose 1%.

Corporate taxes have plummeted by 30% this fiscal year, both because of the lower rate as well as the expanded ability to immediately deduct the full value of equipment purchases. Individual income and payroll taxes have climbed 4%, as increasing wages — mostly, due to more people having jobs — offset a lower withholding rate.

Spending on Social Security and Medicare have climbed 4% as more baby boomers retire, outlays on net interest on the debt have jumped 19% in part due to a higher rate of inflation triggering more payments to inflation-protected securities holders, and defense spending has jumped 6%.

More: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-budget-deficit-widens-to-fifth-highest-ever-cbo-reports-2018-09-11?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo

I highlight the big jump in interest on the debt, since that comes out of revenues, leaving less to spend on programs to help regular people. More on interest on the debt: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142154750#post17

[duforsure]

14. Again the opposite of his claims

He said he'd balance the budget, and President Obama was horrible when he brought the budget back down and under control , and now trumps budget is running straight up. He'll claim the opposite that its ok, just like the newer version of another tax scam they want to ram through for their donors, and to use to destroy all Medicaid , Medicare, and Social Security with. Think opposite when he says things and you'll be right 80-90 % of the time.

[raccoon]

15. Thanks, Dotard and Republicans! Nt