July deficit totals $76.9 billion

WASHINGTON » The federal government racked up a $76.9 billion deficit in July, with increased government spending and tax cuts keeping the country on track to record its biggest annual deficit in six years.

The Treasury Department reported Friday that in the first 10 months of this budget year, the deficit totaled $684 billion, up 20.8 percent from the same period last year.

Revenues are up only 1 percent this year, the increase held back by a big drop in corporate tax payments. Spending is up 4.4 percent, reflecting a big boost Congress approved earlier this year for domestic and military programs and the rising costs of financing the debt.

The Trump administration last month sharply revised upward its deficit estimates, projecting annual deficits will once again top $1 trillion next year.

For the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30, the administration is now projecting a deficit of $890 billion. That would be up 33.7 percent from last year’s deficit of $665.8 billion.

The administration’s July estimates project that the deficit will top $1 trillion in 2019, climbing to $1.1 trillion that year, and remaining above $1 trillion for three years.

The only other period when the federal government ran deficits above $1 trillion was for four years from 2009 through 2011. That’s when the Obama admin-

ALEX BRANDON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE This is the East Front of the U.S. Capitol at sunset in Washington.