US Posts Its 19th Straight Monthly Budget Deficit
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
Surely this does not come as a shock to anyone.
The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
It was more than twice the $40-billion deficit that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast and was striking since April marks the filing deadline for individual income taxes that are the main source of government revenue.
Department officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years.
Remember, Social Security should have its own fund of around $2 trillion but instead has a stack of IOUs in the form of US Treasurys and no money.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, in a report issued May 10, projected an April deficit of $85 billion. “The decline in non-withheld individual income tax receipts and the increase in individual refunds were partly offset by higher revenues from other sources,” the CBO said in the report.
Revenue and other income fell 7.9 percent to $245.3 billion in April from $266.2 billion the same month last year, the Treasury said.
Corporate tax receipts totaled $77.1 billion for the year to date, an increase of 8.9 percent. Individual income tax collections were down 11.6 percent so far this fiscal year to $500.8 billion.
Spending for the entire government for April jumped 14.2 percent from the same month a year earlier to $328 billion.
Outlays by the Social Security Administration rose to $437.7 billion for the fiscal year to date. Spending by the Department of Health and Human Services, which administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs, rose to $504 billion.
The question now is how the hell we can dig our way out of this hole. The easy answer (without wasting years pursuing a Masters in econ) is we can’t. If you’ve ever been buried in debt, you understand how difficult it is to ever right your financial situation once you’re in over your head. The government seems to believe that normal rules don’t apply because of that whole world reserve currency thing but I imagine there will come a point when the world will refuse our crap and come up with an anti-dollar solution.
Hopefully we’ll at least have the Social Security thing figured out by then. If not, see you in Central America!
