AJC

FY 2010 Deficit

By Jamie Dupree
Oct 15, 2010

The final figures are out from the Obama Administration on the yearly budget deficit, which came in as the second highest all time, after last year. The final figure was just under $1.3 trillion.  Here are all the nitty gritty details courtesy of the Treasury Department.
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Joint Statement of

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Office of Management and Budget Acting

Direct

October 15,

2010

TG-911

Joint Statement of Timothy Geithner,

Secretary of the Treasury, and Jeffrey Zients, Acting Director of the Office of

Management and Budget, on Budget Results for Fiscal Year 2010

WASHINGTON,

D.C.

- U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Office of Management and Budget

(OMB) Acting Director Jeffrey Zients today released details of the final fiscal

year (FY) 2010 budget results. In making the announcement, Geithner and Zients

underscored the Administration's commitment to getting Federal finances back on

a sustainable path and ending emergency programs that proved instrumental to

reviving growth while beginning the process of bringing down our deficit. As a

result, our fiscal outlook, which remains challenging, has improved over the

past year.

Due to careful

stewardship of the emergency programs, their effect on the deficit was much

smaller than previously estimated. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) had

outlays of just $9.0 billion in FY 2010, which was $25.9 billion or 74 percent

below previous estimates from July 2010.  Aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie

Mac was $52.6 billion in FY 2010 - $16.4 billion or 24 percent less than the

most recent forecast. This played a large part in reducing the deficit, which

as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 8.9 percent, down from

10.0 percent of GDP in FY 2009. This improvement - 1.1 percent of GDP - was the

most rapid one-year improvement since FY 1987.

"By

carefully managing the emergency initiatives to stop the financial panic and by

accelerating our exit from those investments, we have significantly lowered the

cost to taxpayers, bringing the costs of the financial rescue down by more than

$240 billion this year.  However, we still have a long way to go to repair

the damage to the economy and address the long-term deficits caused by the

crisis," Secretary Geithner explained.

"Thanks

in large part to the tough decisions this Administration made over the past two

years, the economy is recovering and we're spurring economic growth and job

creation. Because the President believes that we must also work to get back on

a fiscally sustainable path, our FY 2012 Budget policy process will continue to

enforce the three-year, non-security discretionary spending freeze and continue

our efforts to put the nation on firm fiscal footing," Acting Director

Zients stated. 

Summary of

Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Results

Year-end data

from the September 2010 Monthly Treasury Statement of Receipts and Outlays of

the United States Government show that the deficit for FY 2010 was $1.294

trillion, $122 billion or nine percent less than in FY 2009, and $177 billion

or 12 percent less than estimated in the July 2010 Mid-Session Review of the FY

2011 Budget (MSR). The deficit was also $261 billion or 17 percent less than

the estimate in the President's FY 2011 Budget submitted to Congress in

February 2010. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit fell to 8.9 percent, down

from 10.0 percent of GDP in FY 2009.

Table 1. Total Receipts, Outlays, and

Deficit (in billions of dollars)

 

Receipts

Outlays

Deficit

FY 2009

Actual

2,104

3,520

-1,416

   

Percentage of GDP

14.9%

25.0%

10.0%

FY 2010

Estimates

    2011

Budget

2,165

3,721

-1,556

    2011

Mid-Session Review

2,132

3,603

-1,471

FY 2010

Actual

2,162

3,456

-1,294

   

Percentage of GDP

14.9%

23.8%

8.9%

The decline

in the deficit from last year was due to a combination of higher receipts and

lower outlays. Government receipts totaled $2.162 trillion in FY 2010. Receipts

were $57 billion higher than in FY 2009, an increase of 2.7 percent. This

turnaround in receipts, after two years of decline, was due to higher

corporation income tax receipts and receipts from the Federal Reserve. These

increases were partially offset by a decline in individual income and payroll

tax receipts. As a percentage of GDP, receipts remained unchanged at 14.9

percent.

Outlays for

FY 2010 were $64 billion less than in FY 2009, a decrease of 1.8 percent. As a

percentage of GDP, total outlays shrank from 25.0 percent in FY 2009 to 23.8

percent in FY 2010. This reduction in outlays - of 1.2 percent of GDP - was the

fastest one-year reduction since FY 1984. Spending for three large programs

related to the financial crisis declined by $242 billion, year over year, from

$272 billion in FY 2009 to $30 billion in FY 2010: the TARP; assistance to

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and deposit insurance activities of the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Administration.

Excluding the $242 billion decline in outlays for these three programs, outlays

for the remaining government agencies and programs increased by a net $178

billion or 5.5 percent. Spending in FY 2010 increased for major entitlement

programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and unemployment

benefits.

At $1.294

trillion, the FY 2010 deficit was $177 billion less than projected in the

MSR.  Receipts were $30 billion above the MSR estimate, while outlays were

$147 billion below the MSR estimate. Although lower than expected, the FY 2010

deficit remained elevated as a result of the severe economic recession, high

unemployment, and the financial crisis that were inherited by the current

Administration. In order to shore up the economy, the Administration put in

place temporary economic stabilization and recovery efforts, including the

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act), which provided much

needed tax relief and jobs. The Administration also continued emergency

economic stabilization efforts including the TARP, initiated by the previous

administration. The TARP has proved to be effective and will cost far less than

originally expected. In part because of these measures, the economy began to

grow again in the second half of 2009, and the FY 2010 budget results reflect

improving economic conditions. 

Federal

borrowing from the public, net of financial assets, increased by $1.294

trillion during FY 2010 to $8.004 trillion, or 55.1 percent of GDP. [1]

Fiscal

Year 2010 Receipts

Total

receipts for FY 2010 were $2.162 trillion, $30 billion higher than the MSR

estimate of $2.132 trillion. Higher-than-expected collections of individual

income taxes, corporation income taxes, and miscellaneous receipts accounted

for most of the net increase in receipts relative to the MSR. Table 2 displays

actual receipts and estimates from the MSR by source.

·        

Individual income taxes were $899 billion, $14 billion higher than the

MSR estimate.  Delay in enactment of the Administration's proposal to

extend bonus depreciation for certain property accounted for $4 billion of the

increase in individual income tax receipts relative to the MSR estimate.

Higher-than-estimated withholding, attributable primarily to

higher-than-anticipated wages, accounted for most of the remaining increase in

individual income tax receipts relative to the MSR

estimate.      

·        

Corporation income taxes were $191 billion, $11 billion higher than the

MSR estimate.  Delay in enactment of the Administration's proposal to

extend bonus depreciation for certain property increased corporation income tax

payments $5 billion relative to the MSR. The remaining increase was

attributable to increased corporation income tax payments and reduced refunds,

attributable to higher-than-expected corporate profits.    

·        

Social insurance and retirement receipts were $865 billion, the same as

the MSR estimate, due to small offsetting differences among the sources of this

category of receipts.            

·        

Excise taxes were $67 billion, $3 billion lower than the MSR estimate of

$70 billion.  This decline was attributable to lower-than-expected demand

for taxed goods and higher-than-expected refunds.     

·        

Estate and gift taxes were $19 billion, the same as the MSR

estimate. 

·        

Customs duties were $25 billion, $2 billion higher than the MSR estimate

of $23 billion.  This increase was attributable to higher-than-expected

imports of taxed goods.

·        

Miscellaneous receipts were $96 billion, $5 billion higher than the MSR

estimate.  Higher-than-expected deposits of earnings by the Federal

Reserve System, attributable to higher-than-expected returns on its investment

portfolio and higher-than-expected earnings on its foreign currency holdings,

accounted for $3 billion of the increase in miscellaneous receipts relative to

the MSR estimate.

·        

The MSR included an allowance for jobs initiatives, which reduced

expected receipts by $1 billion. Delay in enactment of a job creation package

increased FY 2010 receipts $1 billion relative to the MSR.       

Fiscal

Year 2010 Outlays

Total outlays

were $3.456 trillion for FY 2010, which was $147 billion below the MSR

estimate. Outlays were lower than estimated in the MSR for a number of

agencies. The difference from the MSR estimate was $10 billion or more for the

Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Treasury; the Social Security

Administration; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The difference

was $5 billion or more for the Departments of Health and Human Services,

Homeland Security, Labor, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs. Within the

Department of Treasury, TARP outlays were $26 billion less than projected in

the MSR and outlays for assistance to the Government-sponsored enterprises,

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were $16 billion less than the MSR estimate.

Table 3

displays actual outlays by agency and major program as well as estimates from

the Budget and the MSR. The largest changes in outlays from the MSR were in the

following areas:

The final figures are out from the Obama Administration on the yearly budget deficit, which came in as the second highest all time, after last year. The final figure was just under $1.3 trillion.  Here are all the nitty gritty details courtesy of the Treasury Department.= Joint Statement of Treasury ...

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Jamie Dupree

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