In 2017, there was a $666 billion budget deficit—$80 billion more than what was recorded in 2016.
Revenue
Total receipts were up 1% in 2017. Revenue was $3.3 trillion. Income taxes contributed $1.6 trillion and corporate taxes added $297 billion. The remaining revenue came from excise taxes, estate taxes, interest on Federal Reserve deposits, and other miscellaneous sources.
Spending
FY 2017 spending was $3.982 trillion. Federal government spending has three components: discretionary, mandatory, and interest on the debt.
Discretionary
Congress appropriates funds each year for agencies covered by the discretionary budget. For FY 2017, Congress appropriated $1.1 trillion, the limit set by sequestration (a method used by Congress to trim the budget). The Trump administration spent $1.08 trillion. It shifted spending from Education, Energy, and Housing to Defense, Health and Human Services, and the State Department. Congress also appropriated $133.2 billion in Emergency Funding, which is not subject to sequestration. Most of that went to Overseas Contingency Operations, which paid for military operations in the Middle East. It included $15 billion in emergency funds for Hurricane Harvey and $19.5 billion for Hurricane Irma. Congress added those funds in October 2017. The chart below compares Obama’s budget to Trump’s amended version. It also shows the appropriations Congress enacted on May 1, 2017, compared to actual department spending. But since it was an election year, Congress passed a bill called a “continuing resolution,” which continued funding for federal departments at then-current levels. Otherwise, the government would have shut down, as it did in 2013. President Trump submitted a budget amendment on March 16, 2017. It asked Congress to appropriate an additional $30 billion for the Department of Defense and enact non-defense discretionary reductions of $18 billion. On April 30, 2017, Congressional leaders agreed on a budget. The Senate and House approved the spending bill in May 2017. It appropriated $1.1 trillion in discretionary spending. Congress added $101.8 billion in emergency funding. The Republican-led Congress spent more than Democrat Obama.
Mandatory
The government spent $2.5 trillion on mandated benefits. This portion of the budget is an estimate, not an appropriation, and Congress can’t change it as part of the normal budget process. Congress mandated these benefit payments when it passed the laws that created the programs. The breakdown of this mandatory spending for FY 2017 was as follows:
Social Security: $939 billion. Payroll taxes fund 100% of the cost. Medicare: $591 billion. Payroll taxes and premiums fund 57% of the cost. Medicaid: $375 billion. Paid out of the general fund. All other mandated benefits: $614 billion. This includes food stamps and Supplemental Security Income. All programs are paid out of the general fund except for Unemployment Compensation, which is partially funded by payroll taxes. The Affordable Care Act and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) are self-funded.
Interest on the Debt
Interest payments on the national debt are not officially part of the mandatory budget, but the payments must be made. In FY 2017, these payments were $263 billion. That will increase in future years as interest rates rise.
Deficit
The FY 2017 deficit was $666 billion, $100 billion higher than budgeted because revenue came in less than expected. As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit for 2017 was 3.5%; the 50-year average to that point was 2.9%. Spending, which was $3.9 trillion, was slightly less than budgeted but not enough to help the deficit. 2017 saw the fifth-highest U.S. deficit by year to date, and it has been surpassed every year since. It made Trump the creator of the third-highest deficit by a president, following Obama and Bush. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the deficit would reach $1.3 trillion or $1.4 trillion (depending on the timing of some federal payments) by 2029.
FY 2021: -$2.8 trillionFY 2020: -$3.1 trillionFY 2019: -$984 billionFY 2018: -$779 billionFY 2016: -$587 billionFY 2015: -$439 billionFY 2014: -$483 billionFY 2013: -$680 billion
