The Congressional Budget Office says federal revenues were lower than expected in the last few months of Fiscal 2013, resulting in a deficit that was $38 billion higher than CBO had projected in May.
The Treasury Department’s final number for the 2013 deficit was $680 billion, or 4.1 percent of GDP. Revenues for the year were $2.77 trillion, which was 16.7 percent of GDP and $39 billion less than CBO had projected in May. Spending totaled $3.45 trillion, which was 20.8 percent of GDP and only $1 billion below the May projection.
Last week CBO said all types of revenue were lower than it had projected in the spring. Yet 2013 still had the most revenue since 2007.
Government spending was lower than in any year since 2008. Outlays for Medicare were $4 billion below what CBO had estimated in May and grew more slowly than its 5 percent average growth over the past five years.
Also last week, the General Accounting Office released a short video on the federal debt. Absent policy changes, it warns, the government “faces a rapid and unsustainable growth in debt.”
External links:
Monthly Budget Review (CBO)
How the Actual Federal Budget Results for 2013 Compared With CBO’s May 2013 Estimates (CBO)
What Is The Federal Debt? (GAO Video)
