US Budget Deficit Soars to Almost $1 Trillion

By Staff, Agencies

The United States’ budget deficit soared to nearly $1 trillion in the 2019 fiscal year as government borrowing swelled, the Treasury announced Friday.

The fourth straight year of broadening budget gaps underscored a new tolerance for yawning fiscal imbalances in the current political era.

Republican lawmakers' oft-stated fears of weak fiscal discipline under the prior administration have fallen by the wayside and trillion-dollar annual deficits look set to become a new normal.

The persistent increase in government borrowing also runs counter to US President Donald Trump's campaign pledges in 2016 to eliminate or at least significantly reduce America's $19 trillion debt load.

The fiscal 2019 deficit jumped by 26 percent to $984 billion, the highest since 2012, as spending outstripped tax receipts in the wake of the 2017 Republican-led tax cuts, according to the Treasury.

Tariffs imposed in Trump's multi-front trade confrontations also rose to a record $30 billion in the year ended September 30.