ByPatricia L Johnson and Richard E Walrath
What is it going to take for the voters in this country to pay attention to the major problems this country is facing, rather than listening to the latest gaffe by former V.P. Joe Biden, or reading the most recent tweet written by our current President?
The most recent Monthly Treasury Statement was released by the Department of the Treasury on August 12, 2019, indicating a one month budget deficit for the fiscal month of July 2019 of $120 Billion. That’s an additional -$120,000,000,000.00 in the hole in one single month under this administration.
Anyone that thinks our economy is running at top speed simply doesn’t understand the facts. The facts are in July of 2019, we received $251 billion in receipts, while we spent a whopping $371 billion, resulting in the -$120 billion deficit.
The majority of us don’t work in billions so let’s look at these numbers realistically. Let’s say you earn $251 dollar a week. The current Federal minimum wage is $7.25 [although some states have opted to pay their workers more per hour. At minimum wage, a worker would earn $290 for a 40-hour week].
Our worker only earns $251 dollars a week, but he/she spends $371 dollars a week. That leaves our worker with a shortfall of -$120 each and every week, so as each week goes by our worker gets further and further in debt.
That is exactly what is happening with our country under the current administration. With each month that passes we become further in debt, with no end in sight, and the situation has worsened with time.
Donald Trump became President in January of 2017. In July of 2017 we had a budget deficit of -$43 billion, with $232 billion in receipts, and $275 billion in disbursements (please recall we were still operating under the previous administrations budget in July of 2017). Historical data located at U.S. Treasury
In July of 2018 we had a budget deficit of -$77 billion with receipts of $225 billion and disbursements of $302 billion. The deficit nearly doubled under the current administration.
Now we are up to the current year with a July 2019 budget deficit of -$120 billion. All the claims of how our receipts were going to skyrocket are nonsense. Receipts have only increased a mere $19 billion from July of 2017 [$232 billion] compared to July of 2019 [$251 billion] while disbursements have increased $96 billion [$275 billion compared to $371 billion].
Do you have anything at all to show for the $96 billion additional spending? Have your medical costs been reduced? Has your income increased dramatically? Has the value of your property increased tremendously? Do you have piles of money sitting around waiting to be taken to the bank? Are your children all attending college for free? Have all the bridges in your area been completely restored? How about the highways? How about your food costs? Have they decreased to the point where you’re not concerned about where your next meal is coming from? How about transportation. Do you have high speed train service in your area? Do you have ANY train service in your area? Do you have needs that could and should be met by our government?
More than likely the answer to all the above questions are no. This administration has done little to assist the average person, but the major problem is this administration has done absolutely nothing to improve our economy. Our GDP Growth Rate for the second quarter was down a full percentage point see The Great U.S. Economy, that isn’t released on July 30, 2019.
We are now in the 11th month of our fiscal year. 10 months of data has been released and out of the 10 months of budget data, there have only been two months where we have had a budget surplus rather than a deficit. We had a small surplus in January, and a surplus in April when taxes are due. Each of the other 8 months of the fiscal year have shown a deficit, with the deficits rising due to the uncontrolled spending by this Administration.
Closing out the economic picture is the question of the Trump not so “EASY TO WIN TRADE WARS”. How much have they cost the U.S. and the World? They are bringing on the recession sooner. DJIA is down 700 today [when this article was written and this could be the beginning of “The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century”, to borrow the title from Nobel Prize Winner, Paul Krugman.
Someone please tell us what this Administration is doing with the money, since they aren’t spending it on improving our lives, or improving our economy.
© 2019 Patricia L Johnson and Richard E Walrath
Patricia L Johnson is a former special assignment writer-photographer. Richard E. Walrath is a former Budget Analyst for Ohio State University, residing in Central Ohio with his family.
