US budget deficit running 11.8% higher this year

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

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.



FILE - This July 16, 2019, file photo shows the Capitol Dome in Washington. 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. The Treasury Department said Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, that the deficit from October through December totaled $356.6 billion. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)


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

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Trump tax cuts at work.

[Sherman A1]

1. Deficits only matter when a Democrat is in

The White House.

[Wuddles440]

9. Yes, ....

and despite the tremendous recovery of the economy during the Obama years, the media always seemed to dilute the positive achievements such as market, GDP, employment gains with negative narratives regarding the deficit, debt, "real" unemployment numbers, stagnation of wages, etc. You rarely, if ever, hear them mention any such concerns now about the economy of this administration (inherited from Obama). They only seem to regurgitate whatever garbage spews forth from the pie hole of the Orange Anus.

[Scarsdale]

2. tRump's golf outings add up.

His kids travels are costly, too. Since they (supposedly) are filthy rich, why are taxpayers on the hook to protect their sorry asses? We need to see exactly how much having this vile family in office is really costing taxpayers, and how much they are gaining by this??

[Javaman]

3. so much winning. nt

[groundloop]

4. They'll be saying we need to cut 'entitlements' any day now

I despise using the word 'entitlements' to describe Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I only used it because that's the term that gopers will be using.

This is all part of their master plan, bankrupt the country with massive tax giveaways to the wealthy, then cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, infrastructure spending, etc. so that they don't have to pay for all of us freeloaders.

We MUST get that orange motherfucker out of our White House!!!!!

[Wuddles440]

7. They won't...

be discussing any of their draconian plans for the "entitlements" until after the elections in November, but it will be an all out assault come 2021.

[turbinetree]

5. Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years"

Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years

Goldwater, however, rejected the "liberalism" of Eisenhower, Rockefeller, and other "moderates" within his own party. Extremism in defense of liberty was no vice, he famously told the 1964 nominating convention, and moderation was no virtue. And it doomed him and his party.

byThom Hartmann


This weekend, House Republican leader John Boehner played out the role of Jude Wanniski on NBC's "Meet The Press."

Odds are you've never heard of Jude, but without him Reagan never would have become a "successful" president, Republicans never would have taken control of the House or Senate, Bill Clinton never would have been impeached, and neither George Bush would have been president.

When Barry Goldwater went down to ignominious defeat in 1964, most Republicans felt doomed (among them the then-28-year-old Wanniski). Goldwater himself, although uncomfortable with the rising religious right within his own party and the calls for more intrusion in people's bedrooms, was a diehard fan of Herbert Hoover's economic worldview.

In Hoover's world (and virtually all the Republicans since reconstruction with the exception of Teddy Roosevelt), market fundamentalism was a virtual religion. Economists from Ludwig von Mises to Friedrich Hayek to Milton Friedman had preached that government could only make a mess of things economic, and the world of finance should be left to the Big Boys – the Masters of the Universe, as they sometimes called themselves – who ruled Wall Street and international finance.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/01/26/two-santa-clauses-or-how-republican-party-has-conned-america-thirty-years

And every Democratic candidate should be calling this out in tonight's debate...................and lay this at the republicans feet, instead of what Lawrence O'Donnell said last night that the media is going to play with there questions..................

?list=PLDIVi-vBsOEygID4uPKD-GL39WY-tEDyp

[JudyM]

10. Yes, it should be like a drum beat. MSM's chasing every hour's sensationalist story is also to blame

for the public’s ignorance, not just the blight-wing media’s drumbeat repetition of deceptive tropes.

[Firestorm49]

6. Is it just me, or why is it that the Republican party crapped their pants about budget deficits

when they were the minority, but now readily and happily accept it with open arms? The absurdity is overwhelming, which only confirms my true belief that Republicans think that the public is dumber than a brick. “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” Alex Carras - Blazing Saddles. Wow, I actually gave credit where credit was due!

We’re in some deep doodoo 👌here. I pray there is a way out. You can vote your way into fascism, but you have to shoot your way out.

[ffr]

8. Deferred taxes. Make sure your children become rich or shelter their wealth offshore

because you cannot subsidize corporate welfare forever. Eventually you have to show you can pay down your debt.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. This is what Trump does. Load up debt and defraud investors, and bankruptcy.

But this time, when the debt squeeze comes, the Republican Noise Machine will make sure everyone knows it's those pesky entitlements that cause it.

This is how they kill our safety nets and social programs.

[winstars]

12. Republican answer: CUT SOCIAL SECURITY, SNAP and MEDICARE!!!

[riversedge]

13. well, that one billion coming from SA will help the treasury.

NOT.