by Ben Zeisloft, Daily Wire:
Higher spending and lower revenue intake produced a $1.1 trillion budget deficit in the first six months of fiscal year 2023, according to a report released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The federal government spent $3.1 trillion and received $2.0 trillion between October 2022 and March 2023, marking a 13% increase from the $2.8 trillion spent and a 3% decrease from the $2.1 trillion received during the same period in fiscal year 2022.
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The budget deficit for the first half of the fiscal year, therefore, increased by $430 billion from the $668 billion deficit seen between October 2021 and March 2022.
Individual income and payroll taxes fell by $33 billion, while collection of corporate taxes increased by $13 billion, and receipts from other sources, such as remittances from the Federal Reserve and customs duties, decreased by $53 billion. Increased spending, on the other hand, largely emerged from $141 billion in additional Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid costs, as well as an additional $90 billion for interest expenses on the public debt.
“Our fiscal challenges will only become more difficult the longer we wait to do anything,” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas said in a statement reacting to the report. “In just five years, the national debt will surpass its record as a share of the economy set just after World War II, when we had no choice but to borrow to win the war. However, we’re in no such emergency now. It’s long past time that policymakers figure out a way to sustainably finance their priorities, not just add the costs to the national credit card.”
