The government pulled in close to $163 billion in corporate taxes so far this fiscal year, only about two thirds of last year’s receipts due to the tax cuts passed by Congress as a part of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The cuts reduced individual income tax rates too, but the effect of those will be most notable in early months of 2019, when Americans file their taxes under the new rules.
The deficit is mostly fuelled by rising interest on government debt, increasing costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as increased military spending and costs of disaster relief.
The debt interest payments rose by a staggering $55 billion this fiscal year, partly because of a higher inflation rate, the CBO stated.
Trump has bemoaned the gargantuan $1.3 trillion 2018 budget, saying it included a lot of wasteful spending kept in by Congress to secure sufficient support by Democrats. Trump said he won’t sign another such spending bill again.
Democrats have opposed cuts to spending on welfare, such as Medicare and Medicaid, while proposing increased spending on programs like cancelling student loans.
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