Federal Deficit Hit Record $3.1 Trillion–More Than Triple Last Year's Shortfall, CBO Estimates

Wow, the Trump era was a disaster. 3 more weeks

TOPLINE
Despite lawmakers and the White House failing to reach an agreement on a new round of coronavirus relief, the federal budget deficit reached a record $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020, new estimates released Thursday show.


President Donald Trump stands on the Truman Balcony after returning to the White House from Walter ... [+]

GETTY IMAGES
KEY FACTS
The federal budget deficit hit $3.1 trillion in fiscal 2020–more than tripling the $984 billion deficit from fiscal 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in a monthly budget review released Thursday afternoon.

Even relative to the size of the economy, the deficit was the largest since 1945, the report notes, and marked the fifth consecutive year in which the deficit increased as a percentage of GDP.

The first six months of the fiscal year, October 2019 to March 2020, marked only an 8% increase from the 2019 shortfall, but the following six months—all well into the coronavirus pandemic—catapulted the fiscal deficit to more than eight times the shortfall in the same period last year.

This wasn't totally unexpected: The deficit estimate of $3.1 trillion is actually $180 billion smaller than the shortfall that CBO projected in September.

Government revenue collections totaled $3.4 trillion in the period–about $123 billion more than expected.


Meanwhile, estimated outlays, or money spent, totaled roughly $6.6 trillion–just $56 million less than projected.

The actual deficit for fiscal 2020 is due out later this month, with Thursday's estimate based on daily statements released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

KEY BACKGROUND
The U.S. budget deficit is often viewed as a measure of government efficiency, and naturally, of government spending. A larger deficit typically means the government is taking on more debt, which can ultimately limit the government's willingness–and ability–to increase spending in order to curb economic downturns, or fight pandemics, notes David Wessell, the director of The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institute.

SURPRISING FACT
The U.S. government has been operating on a budget deficit since 2002. In 2001, the budget surplus was $127 billion. On the campaign trail in 2016, President Donald Trump said he'd work to eliminate the federal deficit in eight years. In September, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that President Trump plans to make addressing the ballooning national debt a “big second term priority."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonath...hyGUZkT1yclkWHo6WJsMlfbI1bzHyexs#5dec0a5949c7

 

Yes he's sucked and hasn't done anything to help the deficit through 4 years, but I think everyone knows we would have had a 2020 deficit no matter who was in office.

 

Thanks mostly to NancyPoo and Chuckie-baby . . . you insincere liberals are just poking fun at Trump . . . the LAST thing you want to do is bring the deficit down.

 

dolt



https://towardsdatascience.com/which-party-adds-more-to-deficits-a6422c6b00d7

 

Nice try . . . that's a very powerful looking presentation, but it's terribly misleading data that is perpetually used by the left to misguide the public.

The power of the purse belongs to Congress, not the president, and this argument begs examination from that perspective.

Ronald Reagan managed a remarkably good record despite Tip O'Neill's headwinds all 8 years. Few others could have so effectively managed such a cantankerous liberal speaker.

G.W. Bush battled with both a Democratically controlled House and Senate for all of his years in office, and it shows.

Clinton did not get off to a bad start but the improved figures, rather than being reflective of his leadership, are largely attributable to the retaking of both Houses of Congress by Republicans in 1994, led by Newt Gingrich and his Contract With America.

George Bush Jr got off to a rocky start with poor revenues because of the recession of 2001 and the 911 attacks, but dug out with 6 years of a Republican Congress, and then tanked when Democrats flipped both the House and Senate in 2006.

Obama had an abysmal year when Democrats not only controlled both houses of Congress, but the White House as well. The only good fiscal years during Obama's tenure were after Republicans retook control of the purse strings.

During Trump's first year in office, both the House and Senate were controlled by Republicans, but the Democrats took the House back in the next election and resumed their undisciplined demands. That COVID has completely turned everything upside down this year is undeniable, and setting our fiscal situation in order once it has passed will take backbone like no liberal can offer.

Go ahead and beat your chest about how good you liberals are with our money, but it's all one great big deception. All we have to do is pull out the facts and get people to read them.

For those who want to set our financial house in order, the right fix is not to remove Trump from office. It is to keep Biden / Harris out of the White House, maintain Republican control of the Senate, and deliver Republican control of the House.

 

So...if Trump talks about a trillion dollar stimulus deal, he is financially irresponsible even though Congress wants the same if not even more money spent
BUT
If Trump doesn’t agree on a stimulus deal and the price tag, then he doesn’t care about the welfare of the American people?
Which one does the Democrats want him to do???

 

the stimulus deals don't go to the people as much as they go into special deals for the rich. Study why the deals aren't approved.

 

The deals aren't approved because, in addition to funds for COVID-related burdens, Chuckie & Nancy want money to sustain liberal localities that are strangling themselves fiscally with their bad habits.