CBO Monthly Budget Review, September 2009

Grab the kids, stock the bomb shelter with supplies, and say goodbye to friends, because yesterday the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its fiscal year-end Monthly Budget Review [2], and it's bad.

No, I'm just kidding. These debt numbers are exactly what we've been expecting for months and they're really nothing to get too worked up about. CBO opens their analysis thusly:

The federal budget deficit was about $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, $950 billion greater than the shortfall recorded in 2008. The 2009 deficit was equal to 9.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 3.2 percent in 2008, and was the highest shortfall—relative to the size of the economy—since 1945. The substantial increase in the deficit resulted from both declining revenues and increased spending. Revenues in 2009 were almost $420 billion (or 17 percent) below receipts in 2008 and totaled about 15 percent of GDP, the lowest level in over 50 years. At the same time, outlays increased by over $530 billion (or 18 percent) in 2009, to nearly 25 percent of GDP, the highest level in over 50 years.

Some of those numbers may sound scary, but there is no reason to believe our economy is going to collapse as some histrionic-spouting commentators claim. In fact, these high numbers explain the relative stability of our economy, as much of the spending increase is due to the government's injection of funds into the financial sector and the adoption of an economic stimulus.

Read the rest of the CBO report [2] to soak up all the estimates, budget totals, and receipts and outlays you can get your hands on.

Image by Flickr user johnsolid [3] used under a Creative Commons license.