By Denny Gulino
WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – The U.S. Treasury reported Thursday that August’s federal budget was in deficit by $214.1 billion and the total for 11 months of the government’s fiscal year is a deficit of $898.1 billion, another step on the path to trillion dollar annual deficits forecast for the beginning of the next decade and beyond.
After adjustments August’s deficit was lower, at $152 billioin, compared to a year earlier’s $108 billion and the year-to-date red ink is actually $886 billion.
The new tax law’s well entrenched trend remained intact and for the fiscal year that ends September 30 corporate tax receipts are running 20% behind last year at this time, and corporate refunds are ahead by 43%. Individual tax receipts? They’re larger for the year by 1.0%.
The reported deficit for August was a record high for any August. Government outlays for the month, at $433.3 billion, were a record high for any month.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office sees the annual deficit beginning to crack $1 trillion again beginning in 2020.
At 78 percent of gross domestic product, federal debt held by the public is now at its highest level since shortly after World War II. If current laws generally remained unchanged the monthly deficits would boost the total national debt sharply over the next 30 years, approaching 100% of GDP by the end of the next decade and 152% by 2048, highest in the nation’s history by far.
Even before the tax overhaul and spending increases were passed, the increasing load on entitlement funds from aging Baby Boomers were promising increasing deficits, a trend made worse by the revenue losses and new spending.
For this waning fiscal year for the government, interest on the national debt is up 13% compared to last year, at $493 billion, a number that will keep rising along with interest rates.