A Congressional Budget Office report says the U.S. budget deficit for the first half of the government’s 2016 fiscal year is about $18 billion more than the $439 billion shortfall the agency recorded in the first half of FY 2015.CBO said Thursday the amount of revenues the government has earned from individual and corporate income taxes and other sources grew 4 percent over the past six months to approximately $1.5 trillion.
Federal outlays also climbed 4 percent in the six-month period to $1.9 trillion, driven primarily by increased interest payments on the public debt and spending levels on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs, the report states.
The government incurred a $104 billion deficit during the month of March, a $15 billion increase from the prior-year period’s figure.
The amounts of government revenue and spending in the past month were $229 billion and $334 billion, respectively, CBO noted.
