– September 2018
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its summary of the most recent federal budget as of July. The deficit of the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2018 reached 682 billion dollars, up $116 billion from a year earlier. Federal spending increased by $143 billion, attributable to increases in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security expenditures.
What was noted as well in the report was that revenues were also higher, increasing by $26 billion. Even though corporate income taxes were lower following the recent tax cuts, individual income taxes rose by $104 billion. The rise in individual taxes was a result of larger withholdings on paychecks, which increased by $32 billion. That increase in withholdings reflects recent increases in wages and salaries, meaning that the economy is possibly experiencing more people working and at higher pay rates.
Source: CBO
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