A new Congressional Budget Office report says the federal budget deficit in fiscal year 2017 ended Sept. 30 reached $668 billion, approximately $82 billion higher than the shortfall recorded in the previous fiscal year.CBO said Friday the FY 2017 budget shortfall was equivalent to 3.5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2017, up from 3.2 percent of GDP in 2016.
The report showed total receipts associated with corporate and individual income taxes as well as Federal Reserve remittances and excise taxes rose by 1 percent to $3.3 trillion in FY 2017.
Total outlays in FY 2017 climbed by 3 percent to about $3.98 trillion driven by spending increases in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs as well as in federal agencies such as the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Education.
The government’s FY 2017 total outlays reflect a $130 billion increase over spending recorded in the previous year.
The federal government recorded a surplus of $6 billion in September, a decline of $28 billion from the prior year period, according to CBO’s estimates.
