U.S. Deficit Reaches More Than One Trillion Dollars

July 13, 2009
Spending in June soared 37% from a year ago, to $309.682 billion.

Nine months into the 2009 fiscal year that ends September 30, the budget deficit widened by $94.316 billion in June to $1.086 trillion, according to the Treasury's monthly statement of receipts and outlays.

Receipts during the nine-month period to June amounted to $1.588 trillion, eclipsed by outlays of $2.675 trillion.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecasts the budget deficit could hit $1.845 trillion for the fiscal year based on President Barack Obama's administration's $3.5 trillion budget plan, approved by Congress in early April.

The White House has penciled in a deficit of $1.841 trillion.

June is traditionally a month of budget surplus, but as in the preceding months, the federal budget was under pressure from a decline in tax revenues and an increase in stimulus and social spending as unemployment and health insurance benefit costs surge.

Receipts in June reached $215.364 billion, a drop of 17% from June 2008. It was the 14th consecutive month that receipts have fallen on an annual basis.

Spending in June soared 37% from a year ago, to $309.682 billion, a record for the month.

June marked the ninth month the government has run a deficit. The last time the U.S. had a longer stretch was an 11-month streak that ended in March 1992.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009

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