Federal Deficit: Short Month, Big Bill

By FITSNews || The federal government racked up its largest monthly deficit in history in February – a record $220.9 billion in red ink, according to a budget report released this week by the U.S. Treasury Department.

On the one hand, government took in $107.5 billion in February – marking the first time in 21 months that revenue was up from the previous year.  On the other hand, Washington politicians spent more than three times that amount – $328.4 billion.

That’s a 14 percent increase from February of last year.

And we wonder why we’re on our way to a $20 trillion deficit within the next decade?

The U.S. fiscal year began on October 1, and already the federal government is $651 billion in the red.  That’s a 10.5 percent increase from last year, when government overspent by $589 billion during the first five months of the fiscal year.

Congress has passed – and President Barack Obama has signed – $3 trillion worth of debt ceiling increases in the last thirteen months to pay for all this deficit spending.  The first hike occurred in February 2009, when the so-called “stimulus” raised the debt ceiling from $11.3 trillion to $12.1 trillion.  Then, in December, the limit was hiked to $12.4 trillion and in February, it was raised to its current level of $14.3 trillion.

By 2020, the U.S. debt is projected to reach as high as $20.3 trillion – meaning that annual interest payments would amount to $916 billion, or roughly a third of the current federal budget.

WEB EXTRA
U.S. Treasury Monthly Budget Report