It was another crazy news week, so it's understandable if you missed a small but important announcement from the Treasury Department: The federal government is on track to borrow nearly $1 trillion this fiscal year - President Donald Trump's first full year in charge of the budget.This is a bipartisan fuck-up. We desperately need some adults in Washington.
That's almost double what the government borrowed in fiscal year 2017.
Here are the exact figures: The U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this fiscal year, according to a documents released Wednesday. It's the highest amount of borrowing in six years, and a big jump from the $519 billion the federal government borrowed last year.
Treasury mainly attributed the increase to the "fiscal outlook." The Congressional Budget Office was more blunt. In a report this week, the CBO said tax receipts are going to be lower because of the new tax law.
The uptick in borrowing is yet another complication in the heated debates in Congress over whether to spend more money on infrastructure, the military, disaster relief and other domestic programs. The deficit is already up significantly, even before Congress allots more money to any of these areas.
07 February 2018
About that federal budget
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Not to mention Mar-a-Lago and all the golf. Or Secret Service proection and travel expenses for the Trump family.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's a bipartisan issue. The main problem is that the Left rarely cares about the National Debt (though it is beginning to concern some), and the Right only cares about it when they are not the party in power.
ReplyDeleteShort of a Convention of the States or an absolute financial disaster, I don't see a chance of change being made, unfortunately.
I'm sorry. This is not a bipartisan issue. There only one party intent on the absolute destruction of the Federal Government. Sure, the other part is incompetent and has plenty of incompetence. But that does not make this issue bipartisan.
ReplyDeleteI’m stunned you would say this is bipartisan. The Rs own the house, senate, and presidency, and passed the tax cut with no D votes.
ReplyDeleteAnd under a similar Democratic majority from 2009-2011, guess what happened? Same song and dance. Well, technically it was worse. This isn't a one party problem.
Deletehttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jan/20/barack-obama/barack-obama-claims-deficit-has-decreased-two-thir/
I should add: check out the chart from 1974-2024 (projected). It's quite telling.
DeleteAs a scientist, I admit to being uncomfortable making assertions without data, but my sense is that the Democrats in both houses of Congress are equally culpable in adding earmarks to legislation and voting in favor of bills they haven't read and don't understand, in order to placate their corporate sponsors and megadonors. I think the system is corrupt from deep inside and is a travesty of proper democracy. That's just my opinion.
DeleteMinnesotastan, I agree with you. The one law we need to pass, and it will never happen, is banning "gifts" or "donations" to candidates. The government should fund all elections--moderately--to get the corruption out of the system.
ReplyDelete