美國財政部公布了月度政府收支報告。對主張控制政府預算的政壇人士來說，這份報告透露的信息并不好。美國政府的支出速度要比收入快得多。

美國政府的財政年度為當年10月到第二年9月。在本財年上半年，美國政府年化赤字已達6921億美元，而上一財年同期數字為5997億美元，2018年的總赤字為7790億美元。

官方估算的本財年赤字略低于1.09萬億美元。如果保持目前的速度，這個數字就有可能逼近1.4萬億美元。

美國經濟研究院總裁、康涅狄格州哈特福德三一學院經濟組織和創新專業教授愛德華·斯丁漢姆告訴《財富》雜志：“人們一直在說要讓政府支出和赤字變得更合理，但每次我們都會聽到政客們說：‘不用擔心這個。’他們實際上一直在踢皮球。現在美國政府的債務達到了歷史最高水平，而且還看不到要怎樣對其進行調整的征兆。”

雖然民主、共和兩黨都會談論赤字問題，但他們往往是在不掌權時才這樣做，因此情況并沒有出現實質性變化。

美國政府問責局今年4月10日發布的報告指出，“聯邦政府目前的財政情況不可持續”，而且“拖延的時間越長，要做的改變就越大、越劇烈。”

支付政府債務利息所需的資金越來越多。政府債務是政府所有收支的總和，而美國政府支出過多，收入則不足。今年，美國政府債務的利息開支為每天8.96億美元。

有人說政府可以不斷地印錢，進而償還債務。但在歷史上，這樣做的國家出現了超級通脹和經濟災難。

應付利息不斷增多造成其他支出的空間減少，在聯邦預算全面上升以及2017年《減稅與就業法》顯著降低政府稅收收入之際，這可不是什么好事。美國財政部的報告稱，2018年10月到2019年3月，美國政府征收的個人所得稅約為7238億美元，企業所得稅為700億美元。而在上一財年，同期個人所得稅收入為7363億美元，企業所得稅收入為796億美元。減稅支持者表示經濟增速加快將足以抵消稅收減少的影響，但到目前為止情況并非如此。

至少現在來看，美國政府的赤字還沒有任何節流跡象。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

The Treasury Department issued its monthly report on receipts and outlays of the government and, for deficit hawks, the news is not good. Money is flowing out far faster than it is coming in.

The first six months of the federal government’s fiscal year, which runs from October through September, saw the annual deficit already reach $691.2 billion dollars. At the same point last year, the deficit was $599.7 billion and the entire deficit for 2018 was $779 billion.

The official estimated deficit for the year is supposed to be just under $1.09 trillion. If the current pace keeps up, the total could run to almost $1.4 trillion.

“People have been talking about bringing government spending and deficits into more reasonable rates, but every time we hear politicians say, ‘Don’t worry about it,'” Edward Stringham, president of the American Institute for Economic Research, also a professor of economic organizations and innovation at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. told Fortune. “They’ve been essentially kicking the can down the road and we are now in the situation where United States government debt is at record levels and there are no signs in sight of how this is going to be rectified.”

Although both Democrats and Republicans talk about the problems of deficits, they tend to do so when they are out of power, so no meaningful change happens.

According to a Government Accountability Office report of April 10, 2019, the “federal government’s current fiscal path is unsustainable,” and “the longer action is delayed, the greater and more drastic the changes will have to be.”

Increasingly more money must go into paying interest on the national debt, which is the collected total of all deficits and surpluses, with too many of the former and not enough of the latter. This year, the cost of interest on the debt has run $896 million every day.

Some argue that the government could keep printing money to pay its debts. Historically, however, that has led to hyperinflation and economic disaster in other countries.

As the owed interest payments grow, there is less room for other spending, which isn’t good at a time when all parts of the federal budget keep climbing and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has significant reduced income from taxes. According to the Treasury report, in the October 2018 through March 2019 period, individual income taxes received were about $723.8 billion and corporate income taxes were $70 billion. For the same period in the previous fiscal year, individual taxes were $736.3 billion and corporate taxes, $79.6 billion. Proponents of the tax cuts argued that increased economic growth would more than make up the reduction in tax levels, but it hasn’t thus far.

At least for now, the flow of red ink shows no signs of stopping.