U.S. budget deficit soars to almost $1 trillion

The fiscal 2019 deficit jumped by 26 percent to $984 billion, the highest since 2012, as spending outstripped tax receipts in the wake of the 2017 Republican-led tax cuts, according to the Treasury.

Washington, United States (AFP) — America’s budget deficit soared to nearly $1 trillion in the 2019 fiscal year as government borrowing swelled, the US Treasury announced Friday.

The fourth straight year of broadening budget gaps underscored a new tolerance for yawning fiscal imbalances in the current political era.

Republican lawmakers’ oft-stated fears of weak fiscal discipline under the prior administration have fallen by the wayside and trillion-dollar annual deficits look set to become a new normal.

The persistent increase in government borrowing also runs counter to President Donald Trump’s campaign pledges in 2016 to eliminate or at least significantly reduce America’s $19 trillion debt load.

The fiscal 2019 deficit jumped by 26 percent to $984 billion, the highest since 2012, as spending outstripped tax receipts in the wake of the 2017 Republican-led tax cuts, according to the Treasury.

Tariffs imposed in Trump’s multi-front trade confrontations also rose to a record $30 billion in the year ended September 30.

“President Trump’s economic agenda is working,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement, calling on lawmakers to cut “wasteful and irresponsible spending.”

The increase in the deficit paled in comparison to those recorded during and after the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009.

But unlike that era, the current stretched fiscal reality coincides with a record economic expansion now in its 11th year.

With the economy growing, the government took in more money from workers, importers and companies, who paid $3.5 trillion in taxes, about four percent more than in 2018.

But spending grew twice as fast, rising 8.2 percent to $4.5 trillion, driven higher by rising interest on existing public debts, defense spending and outlays for social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.