U.S. Budget Deficit Rises to $928B Through April
America’s debt continues to spiral out of control, with one of the grimmest reports yet from the Congressional Budget Office. It showed in a recent report that the first seven months of the federal fiscal year — October 2022 through April 2023 — the federal budget deficit was $928 billion, which is $568 billion more than the shortfall at this time last year.
This is especially disturbing considering April is traditionally one of the strongest months for receipts from federal income taxes. This year, however, receipts were down by 10%. The U.S. brought in $2.7 trillion in tax receipts in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023, almost $300 billion less than it did last year, the CBO report found.
The decrease in receipts was driven by weaker than expected income and payroll tax collections, down 9% from last year. Corporate income tax receipts did increase slightly, but they were not large enough to meaningfully increase total receipts.
Despite this, spending continued to rise, with outlays increasing by 8% from last year. The U.S. has spent $3.61 trillion so far in fiscal year 2023, $269 billion more than it had spent at this point in 2022, according to the CBO report.
As always, increased spending was driven by increases in mandatory spending programs. Outlays for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid increased 11% from last year. Another substantial increase in outlays came from paying interest on the national debt, which increased a concerning 40% from last year and cost $158 billion.
Increased spending and decreased funding is a recipe for disaster. Congressional leaders need to seriously negotiate on spending cuts to put the U.S. on the right fiscal path before its too late.
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