This is what happens when you have costly things that you give away as “free”.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. fiscal deficit has already exceeded the full-year figure for last year, as spending growth outpaces revenue.
The gap grew to $866.8 billion in the first 10 months of the fiscal year, up 27 percent from the same period a year earlier, the Treasury Department said in an emailed statement Monday. That’s wider than last fiscal year’s shortfall of $779 billion — which was the largest federal deficit since 2012.
So far in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, a revenue increase of 3 percent hasn’t kept pace with an 8 percent rise in spending. While still a modest source of income, tariffs imposed by the Trump administration helped almost double customs duties to $57 billion in the period.