Not exactly breaking news these days, but the Congressional Budget Office announced on Monday that the United States ran a $223 billion deficit in the month of February, the largest monthly deficit in history, up from $221 billion in February of last year. Before that, the previous record (in 2009) was $194 billion.
The federal government continued its record-setting streak of 29 straight months in the red, having last posted a monthly surplus in September 2008, just before the economy tanked (and the artful influx of borrowed stimulus funds kept unemployment levels below 8 percent).
As noted in the Washington Times, the GOP’s proposed $61 billion in spending cuts is about 27 percent of the monthly deficit, while the Democratic plan — $6 billion — is just 3 percent of that figure.
The CBO pointed out that simply cutting waste from the budget will come nowhere close to fixing the budget shortfall, saying that significant cuts to programs and/or higher taxes will ultimately be required, and will almost certainly be painful. “Fiscal policy cannot be put on a sustainable path just by eliminating waste and inefficiency,” CBO officials said in a presentation before the National Association for Business Economics. “The policy changes that are needed will significantly affect popular programs or people’s tax payments or both.”