Another Trillion Dollars In Debt (And We've Still Got Four Months To Go)
So far this year, America's government has spent just shy of a trillion dollars it doesn't have according to a report published by the Congressional Budget Office earlier this week. In its June budget update, the congressional scorekeeper estimated that the U.S. has spent about $2.4 trillion, and, in doing so, managed to dig itself $929 billion further into the hole already this fiscal year. And guess what? There's still four more months to go.
So we're on track for another trillion and a half dollar deficit, roughly, much like the credit card bill the CBO says the country rang up last year. And that's just looking at straightforward deficit totals. Thanks to our entitlement obligations, last year's total fiscal damage was actually quite a bit worse than the headline figures tallied up by the CBO:
The federal government's financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. That brings to a record $61.6 trillion the total of financial promises not paid for.
This gap between spending commitments and revenue last year equals more than one-third of the nation's gross domestic product.
Medicare alone took on $1.8 trillion in new liabilities, more than the record deficit prompting heated debate between Congress and the White House over lifting the debt ceiling.
