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.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I think this link has the chart you’re looking for:

https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates

[DoodleDawg]

Lord only knows how they're spinning it to make it sound bad.

You don't need to spin these figures to make them look bad.

[DoodleDawg]

From October through January, federal government revenues totaled $1.11 trillion, down 1.7 percent from the same period a year ago. Government spending was $1.15 trillion, up 8.8 percent.

I think I see the problem here.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Revenue, however, is up as tariffs —border taxes collected on imports — totaled $25 billion in the October-January period, up 91 percent from a year ago. This reflects the higher tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on China and other nations in various trade disputes.
Awesome.

Wow, that's almost 0.74% of federal revenues! Awesome!

[oincobx]

Let see, budget deficit increasing, trade deficit increasing, and border crossings are back to Bush era levels.

[Moonman62]

No need for artificially low interest rates.

...

Interest rates now are artificially high, thus the inverted yield curve. Economic growth does not cause inflation.

Trump is right to criticize the Fed. They cause more economic damage than a world war.

[DoodleDawg]

They don’t but a big part of this deficit is due to the Fed raising interest rates which increases the interest costs on Obama’s debt.

Interest on the debt was $263 billion in 2017 and $310 billion in 2018. That's not the reason for most if the increase in the deficit. Medicaid, Social Security, and Defense are the reason. Interest on the 10 year T-bills actually went down. The increase in interest expense is due to the increase in debt.

Source

[plain talk]

Economic growth does not cause inflation.

LOL

[Bringbackthedraft]

This means as we all know that the spending is the problem, not revenue. ...................................... Lots of BS spending going on, due to lobbying, resulting in pork projects, and also care of illegals. The money is there but Congress thinks its their private piggy bank.

[sparklite2]

The elephant in the room is the size of the federal government. Trump submitted a budget that would not have added to the debt. He did it by slashing useless agencies like the CPB. Speaker Ryan took one look at it, tossed it in the trash, and passed a bloated bill just like always.

[DoodleDawg]

The debt piled up to keep the Obama economy afloat was beyond compare.

Now the economy is doing better than it has in over a decade and the deficit is headed for $1 trillion. If we can't bring it down in this economy then when can we?

[DoodleDawg]

Trump submitted a budget that would not have added to the debt. He did it by slashing useless agencies like the CPB.

Absolute nonsense. Nothing Trump has proposed would ever have come close to balancing the budget. And cuts proposed did nothing to address entitlements or defense.

[Moonman62]

You can laugh, but it’s the truth.

Is the current inflation in Venezuela caused by economic growth?

[lodi90]

Absolute nonsense. Nothing Trump has proposed would ever have come close to balancing the budget. And cuts proposed did nothing to address entitlements or defense.

---

Democrats insisted on spending increase parity for Democrat welfare/pork/etc to agree to defense spending increase. A large part of the ballooning deficit can be placed right there.

[semimojo]

The deficit figures say nothing about revenue year over year.

No, but the revenue figures in the article do.

[seacapn]

Part of the issue is that government spending is part of the GDP formula. That includes deficit spending, which means that part of our GDP growth would vanish if the budget were balanced. That would in turn lead to lower tax revenues, requiring less government spending to KEEP the budget balanced, thus reducing GDP growth even more... we’ve got ourselves in quite an economic tangle at the moment.

[SisterK]

Lookie Here! That’s enough money to build a wall.

[wgmalabama]

Me too. My contribution is not insignificant this year. Granted total tax is down but tax due is higher this year.

[wgmalabama]

What a screwed up article. 1 year response rates in a long term economy.

I have no disagreement that tax and regulations have caused greed to explode. I don’t know the best way to fix the top 0.01 percent issue. It is a social, economic and ethical problem. Redistribution to the fed gov isn’t the solution.

[Java4Jay]

PDJT screwed up by giving big business massive tax cuts without any stipulations. The cuts should have to be earned by adding jobs or reinvesting in expansion.