2022 U.S. federal budget deficit halves
In a surprise announcement yesterday, Biden administration officials reported that during Fiscal Year 2022, the U.S. deficit fell by $1.4 trillion, which is the largest one-year decrease of the Federal deficit in American history. The 2022 deficit of $1.375 trillion was half of the FY 2021 deficit, $40 billion less than forecasted in the President’s 2023 Budget and $1.8 trillion lower than the deficit the President inherited. As a percentage of GDP, the FY 2022 deficit was 6.8 percentage points lower than in the previous year.
The news came in the form of a joint release from U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen and White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda D. Young.
“Today’s joint budget statement provides further evidence of our historic economic recovery, driven by our vaccination effort and the American Rescue Plan. It also demonstrates President Biden’s commitment to strengthening our nation’s fiscal health,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said.
Yellen added that, “President Biden’s recently enacted economic plan will build on the economic gains of the past two years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act will help put the country on a path to sustained economic growth, create new and good-paying jobs across the country, and strengthen American economic resilience for years to come.”
MSN reported that the deficit decline would have been steeper had it not been for the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program. President Joe Biden countered with the current deficit woes being attributed to the Republicans’ 2017 tax cut bill.
“The federal deficit went up every single year in the Trump administration — every single year he was president,” he said. “It went up before the pandemic. It went up during the pandemic. It went up every single year on his watch, Republican’s watch.”
“The federal deficit went up every single year in the Trump administration — every single year he was president,” Biden said. “It went up before the pandemic. It went up during the pandemic. It went up every single year on his watch, Republican’s watch.”
A consequence of the Trump Administration’s 2017 Tax Cut means that hundreds of billions of dollars will not be collected by the U.S. government from the richest 1% of the nation. Supporting Biden’s stand, the budget deficit did increase every year during Trump’s presidency, “partly as a result of the tax law.”
To coincide with the release of the Federal Government’s year-end financial data, Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) is releasing a new version of Your Guide to America’s Finances (Your Guide). The Fiscal Service created Your Guide in 2019 to make Federal financial information transparent and accessible to all Americans.
(Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
