Читать книгу Northern Light: Lessons for America from Canada's Fiscal Fix - Robert P. Murphy - Страница 32

The federal budget deficit represents the amount by which outlays exceed receipts; it is how much the government must borrow in a given year to meet its spending commitments. A budget surplus is the opposite, when the government collects more than it spends in a given period. The typical figure quoted for the “government’s debt” is simply the accumulation of past government deficits, in excess of past surpluses.

Figure 1.5 shows the federal budget surplus/deficit in absolute dollars.⁷

Figure 1.5 US federal budget surplus/deficit, actual FY 1901–2011, CBO baseline forecast FY 2012–2050