US Deficit Tops $1 Trillion For First Time In 7 Years

The federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time in seven years, the Treasury Department said.

Expenses in August eclipsed incoming revenue by $214 billion this month, taking the government’s total shortfall to just under $1.07 trillion, the government reported Thursday. The last time the deficit was as large was in 2012 when it hit $1.1 trillion.

The figure is up from $779 billion at the end of last year, and up from $584.6 billion in 2016.

Incoming revenue has grown a bit in 2019 to about $280 billion a month, but hasn’t kept pace with growing expenses, now averaging just under $380 billion a month.

The growing deficit has also pushed up the national debt, the amount owed by the country to creditors to cover the difference between revenue and expenses. The national debt is now $22.5 trillion, up 13% since President Donald Trump took office.

Trump promised as a candidate that he could grow expenditures without growing the deficit, even with a tax break, because economic growth would make up for people and companies individually paying less in taxes.

The deficit as a percentage of GDP has, however, contracted in the last decade, from nearly 10% in 2009 to roughly 5% now.

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