CBO Blog

The federal budget deficit was $303 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2019, CBO estimates, $102 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year.

The share of international affairs funding that was provided outside of agencies’ base budget for ongoing activities—that is, “nonbase” funding—increased markedly from 2014 to 2017, mostly for overseas contingency operations.

On Thursday, December 13, CBO will release Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2019 to 2028. This report will describe 121 policy options that would decrease federal spending or increase federal revenues over the next decade.

This report explains the changes to CBO’s long-term Social Security projections since last year and compares CBO’s projections with those of the Social Security Trustees.

CBO found that the tax burden on intangible assets is lower than that on tangible assets. In CBO’s estimation, the 2017 tax act increases the tax burden on research and development but reduces it on most other intangible assets.

In 2015, average household income before accounting for means-tested transfers and federal taxes was $20,000 for the lowest quintile and $292,000 for the highest quintile. After transfers and taxes, those averages were $33,000 and $215,000.

In fiscal year 2018, the budget deficit totaled $779 billion—$113 billion more than the shortfall recorded in 2017. Measured as a share of GDP, the deficit increased to 3.8 percent in 2018, up from 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.2 percent in 2016.

CBO analyzes how the Defense Department’s (DoD’s) funding for military conflicts has changed over time and how the separate budgetary treatment of that funding affects perceptions of DoD’s spending and the anticipated costs of DoD’s plans.

The Navy’s 2019 shipbuilding plan calls for expanding the fleet to 355 battle force ships. On average, implementing the plan would cost 80 percent more per year than the funding for shipbuilding that the Navy has received in recent decades.

Sixty percent of state and local investment in transportation and water infrastructure is financed using tools that impose costs on the federal government: tax-exempt bonds, tax credit bonds, state banks, and direct federal credit programs.