Federal budget deficit leaps 77% so far for fiscal 2019

CBS/AP ^ | 3/5/2019 | AP

[semimojo]

The federal government recorded a budget surplus in January. But so far for this fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the total deficit is 77 percent higher than it was for the same period a year ago.

The Treasury Department said Tuesday the deficit for the first four months of fiscal 2019 totaled $310.3 billion. That's up from $175.7 billion in the same period a year ago -- and that includes the January surplus of $8.7 billion.

[central_va]

It is going in the right direction.

[central_va]

Economic growth does not cause inflation.

Which also show there is no "labor shortage". That one is BS also.

[central_va]

Economic growth does not cause inflation.

LOL. Only an idiot laughs at the truth.

[central_va]

Oh, so illegals are cool is they pay SS taxes? What a bunch of BS you are spewing here.

[central_va]

When does the welfare trust fund run pout?

[Moonman62]

Which also show there is no “labor shortage”. That one is BS also.

...

It almost always is BS.

But even if it were true, it’s far better to let the market work it out, than to have the Federal Reserve manipulate the economy into recession.

[OIFVeteran]

Didn’t say that. Was trying to give an accurate picture of how much the federal government spends on illegals. We know illegals work under actual citizens social security numbers sometimes. However I can’t find any numbers on how much illegal’s pay into the system. If you read my statement again you’ll see I said it’s probably still a net loss.

Usually freepers are very knowledgable of the issues. More so than other boards I post on. However, when it comes to the federal budget I don’t think a lot of freepers have really done their research. I have. You could cut all welfare and money on illegals and not even make a dent in our deficit spending. even adding in foreign aid won’t do much. Not saying we shouldn’t try to reduce those expenditures but in the grand scheme there not that big of a deal.

The three biggies are Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security, and Defense spending. To balance the budget we will have either cut those programs or increase taxes or a combination of the two.

We cannot cut taxes and grow our way out of this situation. We have tried it three times now. First under Reagan, then Bush Jr, and now Trump. And each time our debt skyrocketed. Don’t believe me look up the numbers yourself. Obama also caused the debt to skyrocket but he did something liberals don’t usually do. He increased spending but didn’t raise taxes.

I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it. I don’t like raise taxes and spend liberals, but I really hate cut taxes and spend conservatives.

[central_va]

increase taxes or a combination of the two.

Increasing taxes does not balance anything that is where you go off the rails.

[semimojo]

When Obama ended his terms, the interest rate was increasing from .5 to .75%. It is now at 2.5%. While it is only a portion of the debt, it is an increase to 500% of what it was.

That's true for the fed funds rate, which applies to super short-term debt, but that's not what really decides the debt service cost.

The bulk of the debt is in notes and bonds which have longer terms and where the rate is set by the market. For example, the interest rate on a 10 year treasury went from 1.8% in FY16 to 2,7% in FY19. Much less than the 5x increase in fed funds.

Debt service was up 90 Billion in 2018 as compared to 2016 - or roughly 17.5%, on increase in debt of about 7%.

But 2/3 of that debt was issued in FY18 when short term rates were already higher - the debt service increase wasn't caused by previously issued debt.

From FY17 to FY18 the 10 year Treasury rate actually dropped from 2.7% to 2.6% yet debt service increased by $47B. That's because of new debt.

Interest on the National Debt and How It Affects You

[OIFVeteran]

cutting taxes doesn’t either. So what do we do?

[central_va]

Cutting taxes for individual increases revenue.

[dp0622]

Come on man!! :)

There is NO SPIN to make it look worse.

SS and medicare along build in a devastating deficit.

The 100s of billions in various welfare products add another punch.

You don’t grow your way out of TRILLION dollar deficits.

You SLASH and SLASH some more.

No one has been willing to do that.

See GW and the ALL republican congress earlier this century for reference.

[Brown Deer]

So, another headline could be:

U.S. debt increased only 1.4 percent so far for fiscal 2019

Not good, but much better than eight years ago. The U.S. debt climbed $420 billion during that same period - more than 3 percent. How did they spin the headlines back then? Not much to be found from Google.

March 2011: Corporate Tax Revenues Nearing Historic Lows As A Percentage Of GDP, Report Says

Interesting, FY 2011 - Corporate Income Tax Revenue was only $181 billion, well under the projected receipts for this year.

Individual income taxes withheld from paychecks totaled $818 billion for the October-January period, down 3 percent from the same period last year.

But, the headlines that I have been seeing over the past month from the #fakenews MSM is that most people are shocked because they are paying more income taxes. Individual income tax receipts are down, yet there are an additional one to two million people working since last year!

The higher deficit reflected greater spending...

And Congress continues to spend our money.

At this point in 0bama's term, there was already well over $2 trillion added to our national debt of $11 trillion - about a 20 percent increase! Now there is an additional annual interest expense that we are now required to pay year after year because of the foolishness of Congress spending more than we have.

The MORONS in Congress need to STOP giving away OUR money to welfare and other countries and STOP spending money that isn't there!

Obviously, that is not what they are doing in their own personal households, otherwise they would not all be getting so rich. Why do so many in Congress hate our Country?

[semimojo]

At this point in 0bama's term, there was already well over $2 trillion added to our national debt of $11 trillion...

The debt is up more than $2T since Trump took office as well.

Admittedly this is less than Obama's increase on a percentage basis, but Obama's came during an extreme recession - this time it's happening with a very strong economy which is when we should be banking for a rainy day.

[Brown Deer]

The debt is up more than $2T since Trump took office as well.

It went up $1.233 trillion for FY2018 and another $310 billion during the past four months, for a total of $1.54 trillion (not more than $2 trillion) - a 7.6% increase.

Congress added an additional $253 billion during 2009 that was not included in the FY2009 budget. There was another $1.652 trillion added in FY2010 and in the first four months of FY2011, there was $420 billion, for a total of $2.325 trillion - a 20% increase!

Maybe you should be truthful with the facts, before attempting to defend 0bama. If you want to include 0bama's FY2009 as being Trump's responsibility, then add in another $1.6 trillion to 0bama's total, which would then give him $4 trillion additional - DOUBLE, not even considering that he started out with half the debt!

The fact is, President Trump is responsible for this strong economy, and it would be even stronger if had some cooperation from Congress!

[semimojo]

It went up $1.233 trillion for FY2018 and another $310 billion during the past four months, for a total of $1.54 trillion (not more than $2 trillion) - a 7.6% increase.

What about the 9 months of FY2017 that Trump was President?

The U.S. government's public debt is now more than $22 trillion — the highest it has ever been. The Treasury Department data comes as tax revenue has fallen and federal spending continues to rise. The new debt level reflects a rise of more than $2 trillion from the day President Trump took office in 2017.

Maybe you should be truthful with the facts, before attempting to defend 0bama.

This has nothing to do with Obama and it's you who can't bother to do any research.

The fact is, President Trump is responsible for this strong economy...

And also responsible for $2T in additional debt - well, at least as responsible as any President is for the debt.

[Drago]

Trade deficit now at an all-time high too:

http://fortune.com/2019/03/06/us-trade-deficit-record-high/

[Brown Deer]

And also responsible for $2T in additional debt - well, at least as responsible as any President is for the debt.

NONSENSE! He is not responsible for any debt that was voted on before he was ever in office. He cannot veto a previous president's budget. Do YOUR research, and stop echoing #fakenews reports!

[semimojo]

He is not responsible for any debt that was voted on before he was ever in office.

Oh, sorry.

I thought it was you who was just talking about the debt in Obama's first two years.

I must have confused you with an intellectually consistent FReeper.

[semimojo]

By the way, I realize that Trump isn't responsible for much of anything in the economy for his first 9 months. No President is even if they take credit for anything good that happens during that time.

You disputed my original statement that the debt was up $2T since he took office, and you were wrong.