The U.S. government just notched its worst March on record for a budget imbalance, adding another $207 billion to the deficit for the month as the Trump tax cuts began to sap revenue, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.
The treasury collected just $213 billion for the month, which was down compared to last year at the same time — even though the economy has picked up over the last year. Meanwhile spending continued to rise, hitting $420 billion for the month.
That means that the government borrowed nearly 50 cents of every dollar spend in March.
CBO analysts said the big drivers of rising spending were Medicaid and interest on the debt, following by Social Security.
Meanwhile revenue was down as the massive tax cut law, approved late last year, began to kick in, with the IRS taking less out of paychecks.
Government finances are cyclical, with February traditionally being a bad month for the budget, and April being a good month, as tax payments come in.
March has shown mixed results over the last few decades, but had never posted a monthly deficit above $200 billion. The worst on record was in 2012, when the government was still recovering from the recession.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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