The federal budget deficit climbed by $81 billion through the first three-quarters of fiscal 2016, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Friday.
Through June, federal spending eclipsed revenue by $397 billion, according to the office, which is the nonpartisan, in-house budget agency for Congress. While receipts were up 1 percent, spending was up 4 percent from a year earlier.
The budget office previously has projected that the deficit will check in at $544 billion for fiscal 2016, up from $439 billion in 2015. That was the lowest deficit of President Obama’s administration.
During the trough of the recession, annual deficits exploded past the $1 trillion mark for several years, before declining as the economy recovered, emergency spending tapered, and tax receipts climbed, in addition to deficit-reduction measures implemented by Congress.
The budget office, however, sees the deficit climbing again in future years as spending on entitlement programs grows. It is expected to hit the trillion-dollar mark again in 2023, although the economy will be bigger then.
The federal debt, which reflects accumulated deficits, is also expected to rise from about 74 percent of economic output now to 86 percent by 2026.
Spending has increased this year for Social Security, interest payments on the debt, Medicare, Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The government also had to spend $22 billion more, relative to last year, because of less incoming revenue from Federal Communications Commission auctions of electromagnetic spectrum.
