$207.8 billion budget gap a May record

Aided by quirk, deficit up 41.5 percent from 2018

WASHINGTON — The federal government’s budget deficit in May rose to a record $207.8 billion for the month, up 41.5% compared with a year ago. Most of that increase reflected the impact of calendar quirks that shifted $55 billion in June benefit payments into May.

On Wednesday, the Treasury Department said that the increase in the May deficit resulted largely because June 1 fell on a Saturday, causing benefit payments for June delivery to be paid out in May. The deficit in May 2018 was $146.8 billion.

Through the first eight months of the current fiscal 2019 budget year, which began Oct. 1, the federal deficit totaled $738.6 billion, an increase of 38.8% over the same period last year. For the full year, the deficit is expected to climb sharply, with President Donald Trump’s administration forecasting it will top $1 trillion compared with $779 billion in the previous budget year.

However, the Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a slightly lower deficit of $896 billion for the current budget year, which would still be up 15% from the 2018 deficit.

While the Trump administration is forecasting that the deficits will top $1 trillion for four years before starting to decline, the budget office is forecasting that the deficits will top $1 trillion beginning in 2022 and will remain above $1 trillion annually through 2029.

The big increase in deficits is coming after Trump’s administration pushed a $1.5 trillion tax cut through Congress in 2017. Congress then approved sharp increases in spending for the military and domestic programs beginning in 2018.

Spending so far this year totaled $3.01 trillion, up 9.3% from the same period in 2018, while government receipts total $2.27 trillion, an increase of 2.3%.

Interest on the $22.03 trillion national debt is one of the fastest-growing parts of the budget with net interest payments totaling $268.3 billion, up 15.6% compared with a year ago. That reflects the fact that interest rates have risen and there is now more debt to finance.

Accumulating deficits add to the overall federal debt, which totaled more than $22.03 trillion as of Tuesday. That figure includes more than $5.6 trillion the government owes itself, including about $2.8 trillion borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund, according to Treasury Department reports.

Tariff payments to the U.S. Treasury so far this year total $46 billion, up 80% from a year ago. That reflects the higher tariffs Trump has imposed on China and other nations as part of his effort to strike better trade deals.

On May 10, Trump raised the tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% after talks between the two nations on a trade deal sought by Trump broke off. Trump has said if an agreement is not reached, he is prepared to expand the penalty tariffs to another $300 billion in Chinese products.