The headline is a hot mess but I’m not sure how else to get anyone to pay attention to anything other than Gen. Petraeus and his privates and his custody battle intervention on behalf of the stalked woman’s unstable head-tilting twin sister. Let’s detour to admire how the mainstream media’s layers of editors and fact-checkers are handling this story.
Now for the news: The US budget deficit worsened in October by 22% on a year-to-year basis.
The federal government started the 2013 budget year with a $120 billion deficit, an indication that the nation is on a path to its fifth straight $1 trillion-plus deficit.
Another soaring deficit puts added pressure on President Barack Obama and Congress to seek a budget deal in the coming weeks.
The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the October deficit — the gap between the government’s tax revenue and its spending — was 22 percent higher than the same month last year.
Tax revenue increased to $184.3 billion — 13 percent greater than the same month last year. Still, spending also rose to $304.3 billion, a 16.4 percent jump. The budget year begins on Oct. 1. Officials said last year’s figures were held down by a quirk in the calendar: the first day of October fell on a Saturday, which resulted in some benefits being paid in September 2011.
The deficit, in simplest terms, is the amount of money the government has to borrow when revenues fall short of expenses. The government ran a $1.1 trillion annual budget deficit in fiscal year that ended in September. That was lower than the previous year but still painfully high by historical standards.
Obama’s presidency has coincided with four straight $1 trillion-plus deficits — the first in history and record he had to vigorously defend during his successful re-election campaign.
So…yay! Four more years! America, you’re another day older and deeper in debt.
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