FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, file photo, a statue of former Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin stands guard outside the Treasury Building in Washington. On Friday, June 10, 2016, the Treasury Department releases federal budget data for May. (Jacquelyn Martin, File/Associated Press)
For the first eight months of this budget year, the deficit totals $407.1 billion, an 11 percent increase over the $366.8 billion deficit recorded for the same period last year.
The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that this year’s deficit will end up being 21.9 percent higher than last year.
Last year’s deficit dropped to $439 billion, the smallest deficit in eight years. It’s a significant improvement from the first four years of the Obama administration when the deficits topped $1 trillion annually, reflecting the impact of a deep recession on government tax revenues and various efforts the government was making to jump-start economic growth and stabilize the nation’s banking system.
But CBO projects that deficits will keep growing over the next decade and will once again top $1 trillion annually beginning in 2022. Much of the increase in deficits will reflect higher costs for Social Security and Medicare as millions of baby boomers retire.
So far this budget year, which began on Oct. 1, government receipts total $2.14 trillion, an increase of 1.7 percent over the same eight months last year. Government outlays total $2.55 trillion, an increase of 3.1 percent over the same period a year ago.
