What spending cuts?
The federal government does its budgeting on a fiscal year that runs from October 1 to September 30. So we just finished a fiscal year. The US Treasury has added up how much money the federal government spent during the past year: $3.60 trillion.
How much spent during the year before? $3.46 trillion.
That's up 4.2%. Not only is it an increase from the year before, but it grew faster than nominal GDP and faster than inflation.
So for all the drama about cutting spending, or freezing spending ... we did neither. Sure, certain programs were cut, but overall spending is still going up. Mainly due to the automatic and fast-growing programs for senior citizens.
The federal government took in $2.30 trillion via taxes last year, meaning our deficit was $1.30 trillion. We borrowed about 36 cents of each dollar we spent. That was slightly better than the previous year's 38 cents. So the deficit is coming down, slowly.
How much spent during the year before? $3.46 trillion.
That's up 4.2%. Not only is it an increase from the year before, but it grew faster than nominal GDP and faster than inflation.
So for all the drama about cutting spending, or freezing spending ... we did neither. Sure, certain programs were cut, but overall spending is still going up. Mainly due to the automatic and fast-growing programs for senior citizens.
The federal government took in $2.30 trillion via taxes last year, meaning our deficit was $1.30 trillion. We borrowed about 36 cents of each dollar we spent. That was slightly better than the previous year's 38 cents. So the deficit is coming down, slowly.