{"id":4983,"date":"2024-03-14T01:45:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T23:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/?p=4983"},"modified":"2024-03-14T01:45:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T23:45:59","slug":"us-budget-deficit-for-2024-reached-a-historic-high-of-828-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/?p=4983","title":{"rendered":"US budget deficit for 2024 reached a historic high of $828 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postie-post\">\n<div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This significantly exceeds the deficit in 2023 ($635 billion) and the previous record in 2021 ($763 billion).<\/p>\n<p>The deficit in February amounted to $296 billion compared to $262 billion in Feb. &#8217;23, $217 billion in Feb. &#8217;22, and the standing record of $311 billion in Feb. &#8217;21. February always sees a deficit in the U.S., but this time, the spending has notably accelerated. Ongoing budget agreement processes have not impacted the rate of expenditure.<\/p>\n<p>Excluding accounting manipulations with a $0.3 trillion advance for student loan write-offs that was never realized, the annual deficit gradually increases, reaching $2.1 trillion. There are no grounds to believe that the budget situation will improve, and here&#8217;s why:<\/p>\n<p>Expenditures increased by 9.2% for the fiscal year, or by $226 billion, reaching $2.68 trillion over 5 months, where:<\/p>\n<p>1\ufe0f\u20e3 Interest expenses increased by $116 billion compared to last year<br \/>2\ufe0f\u20e3 Support for the banking system \u2013 $60 billion<br \/>3\ufe0f\u20e3 Defense spending increased by $39 billion<\/p>\n<p>These three items alone accounted for almost the entire increase in spending for the year, meaning stimulation and support of the economy haven&#8217;t even started against a backdrop of a deficit exceeding $2 trillion. Thus, any extraordinary situation instantly &#8220;splits&#8221; the budget.<\/p>\n<p>1\ufe0f\u20e3 Social Security and veterans&#8217; support increased in expenditures by $69 billion over 5 months<br \/>2\ufe0f\u20e3 Medical expenses grew by $40 billion.<br \/>These two categories will only grow due to demographics and inflation.<\/p>\n<p>This was largely compensated by a reduction in direct grants and benefits (this category included &#8220;helicopter money&#8221; in 2020-2021) by $81 billion, but there&#8217;s no more room for cuts, only room for growth.<\/p>\n<p>In the structure of revenues, almost 85% are taxes and fees from individuals.<\/p>\n<p>What does this mean? The structure of income and expenditures is highly vulnerable. Even the slightest hints of a recession (not to mention a crisis) will significantly increase the budget deficit to the background levels of $2-2.2 trillion, i.e., $4 or even $5 trillion are entirely plausible, but there&#8217;s nowhere to get these funds from, implying the need for Quantitative easing.<\/p>\n<p>And as we know, QE means something Yellen just apologized about &#8211; it starts with In, ends wit flation.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This significantly exceeds the deficit in 2023 ($635 billion) and the previous record in 2021 ($763 billion). The deficit in February amounted to $296 billion compared to $262 billion in Feb. &#8217;23, $217 billion in Feb. &#8217;22, and the standing record of $311 billion in Feb. &#8217;21. February always sees a deficit in the U.S., [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}