Record Smashing $1.4 Trillion FY09 Budget Deficit

The Treasury reported the record shattering fiscal year 2009 budget deficit with out much attention from the press.  September's $47 bln deficit left the fiscal year with a $1.417 trilion budget shortfall -- more than three times the size of the prior year's record size and at 10% of GDP the record setter by far in that measure as well. 

For those looking for one there is a bright side.  The deficit was $424 bln smaller than May expectations and $163 bln smaller than the deficit the government forecast in August -- a month before the fiscal year ended.  The miss was largely attributed to the lower than anticipated outlays from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).  Most of the $82 bln TARP miss will be shifted to FY10.  For the conservatives the deficit rings up to over a $10,000 bill for each of the current U.S. workers.  More is on the way.

Tax receipts fell -17% from FY08 -- the largest decline in my 40 year history.  Outlays surged 18%, the largest hike since 1975.   The Administration's chief economic stabilization and recovery efforts -- TARP and the outright stimulus titled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) accounted for 24% of the deficit total.  Or, the deficit excluding TARP and ARRA amounted to a truly tremendous $1.1 trillion.

The costs were funded from public borrowing of $1.7 trillion as total outstanding is now nipping at the $12.1 trillion debt limit (which stands at 85% of nominal annual GDP).  Now Congress has to raise the debt limit to allow the funding its already cleared through the ARRA.  The show continues.

The August estimates from the bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office puts the FY10 budget deficit at a similar $1.38 trillion as the annual deficit isn't expected to fall below a half trillion over the next decade.   For obvious reasons, the public debt -- the amount we tax payers owe -- follows the same path.

 

Comments

[Louis Vuitton Outlet]

Hang in there. Things will get better.

[Coach Outlet Factory]

Really well-written article. I'm jealous I didn't think of the topic. But yeah, the bowl games are really for the big games... everything else is just another way to suck the blood out of these kids and samll universities. Kinda sad.

But if you ARE going to go and get tickets, you might as well find yourself the best deal. I found this really cool website when digging around for tix to my game:

[What Movies Online]

Things will not get better Debt ceiling was raised so that Obama wouldnt have to think about until after election