The U.S. Government Continues To Increase The National Debt

CNBC: America’s budget deficit jumps by 17% as spending surges

* The federal budget deficit rose 17 percent in fiscal 2018, according to the Trump administration.
* Spending jumped, and revenue only increased slightly following the GOP tax cuts.
* The Trump administration has pushed for dramatic budget cuts at several agencies and supported massive increases in military spending.

The U.S. federal budget deficit rose in fiscal 2018 to the highest level in six years as spending climbed, the Trump administration said Monday.

The deficit jumped to $779 billion, $113 billion or 17 percent higher than the previous fiscal period, according to a statement from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. It was larger than any year since 2012, when it topped $1 trillion. The budget shortfall rose to 3.9 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

The deficit increased by $70 billion less than anticipated in a report published in July, according to the two officials.

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Update: Feds Collect Record Individual Income Taxes in FY 2018; Still Run $779B Deficit (CNS)

WNU Editor: I can never understand Congress and its hunger for spending money that it does not have. And this is happening when unemployment is at a record low, and the economy growing over 4%. I can only imagine what the deficit would be if there was/is a recession .... or worse.

Hat tip to Fred for this tip.

Defense Cuts: What America’s Civilian And Military Leaders Are Saying

Defending Defense Fact Sheet: The Dangers of Deep Defense Cuts: What America’s Civilian and Military Leaders are Saying -- Defending Defense

Under current law, the U.S. Department of Defense automatically faces significant spending cuts over the next 10 years—cuts that America’s civilian and military leaders have candidly described as “devastating” and “very high risk.”

This precarious state of the Pentagon’s future fiscal affairs is due to the Budget Control Act, the controversial August 2011 deal by which Congress and the President agreed to raise America’s debt limit. As part of the bargain, the debt-limit deal placed ceilings to cap the defense budget and other forms of discretionary spending. In implementing these budgetary caps, the Obama administration proposed in its fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget to cut Pentagon spending by roughly $487 billion over the next decade. However, because Congress failed to meet the Budget Control Act’s deadline to reduce the long-term deficit by $1.2 trillion, the Pentagon now faces the worst-case scenario: current law now requires additional across-the-board “sequestration” cuts to the Pentagon budget totaling more than $500 billion over ten years.

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My Comment: A long list of quotes. Well worth the read to see what everyone is talking about.