US deficit up 15.7% in first half of fiscal 2011

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON — The US budget deficit shot up 15.7 percent in the first six months of fiscal 2011, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday as political knives were being sharpened for a new budget battle.

The Treasury reported a deficit of $829 billion for the October-March period, compared with $717 billion a year earlier, as revenue rose a sluggish 6.9 percent as the economic recovery slowly gained pace.

The Treasury argued that the pace of increase in the deficit was deceptive because of large one-off reductions in expenditures made during the first half of fiscal 2010, compared with previous and subsequent periods.

Those included a $115 billion reduction in funds spent on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) -- the financial institution bailout program -- in March 2010.

But 2011 so far has also seen significant increases in spending on defense, Social Security, health and debt service, while receipts have not grown as fast.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5il-7COiRQUJ9kbLkZ3gg4nrlac5Q?docId=CNG.dcd81b51497966fd4c6461748e63e3ee.921

[truedelphi]

1. Spending increases, as

Those without jobs turn to the Federal Governemnt for Food Stamps, and other Social Services. And this article goes on to mention that spending is outstripping receipts, as receipts are "not grown as fast."

Hmm, and it will only get worse, as the full ramifications of the 800+ billion dollars worth of tax cuts come into play.

[NightWatcher]

2. So? When I was unemployed I put groceries on my credit card.

Now everything's groovy.

When things are bad you gotta borrow

[Festivito]

3. Misleading headline: "Budget deficit" up, not the actual, which is down.

The actual change in debt has been going down under Obama fiscal year by fiscal year since Obama finished the last months of the last Bush budget. And, a straight projection from the actual change to debt so far this year shows it continues to trend down under Obama.