US budget gap widens, tops $1 trln for 3rd year

Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
Reuters
October 14, 2011

The U.S. budget gap widened slightly in fiscal 2011, staying above $1 trillion for a third straight year and providing fodder for a political battle over taxes and spending ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The Treasury Department report on Friday comes just over two months after an epic showdown over the nation’s debt ceiling that pushed the United States close to a debt default and led to a downgrade of America’s prized AAA credit rating.

The shortfall in September, the final month of the fiscal year, widened to $64.57 billion compared to the same month a year earlier, although it came in at a few billion dollars less than economists had projected. The annual deficit was $1.299 trillion, up from 1.294 trillion in fiscal 2010.

Read more

This article was posted: Friday, October 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm

---

---

---

---