Rebates Push Deficit to Record Highs
The economic stimulus payments - which qualify more or less as “free money” from the government - pushed the federal budget deficit to an all-time high of $165.9 billion in May.
The increase in the deficit includes $48 billion already paid out of the $168 billion planned payments for the economic stimulus plan.
Receipts for the first eight months of fiscal year have totaled $1.67 trillion, representing a mere 0.3% increase from the same period a year ago. Expenditures, however, are up 9.7% to $1.99 trillion; the spike is largely a combination of the economic stimulus payments and the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resulting $319.4 billion deficit is more than twice the $148.5 billion deficit for the same period in 2007.
Grave economic news, for sure. And we still have $120 billion in stimulus payments to go…
