Current Budget Statistics

Budget Statistics at a Glance

Budget Surplus or Deficit:
Fiscal Year 2001: surplus of $128 billion
Fiscal Year 2008 as projected in 2001: surplus of $635 billion
Fiscal Year 2008 (actual): deficit of $455 billion
Fiscal Year 2009 projected in the Administration's July 2008 Mid Session Review: deficit of $482 billion

Debt:
Debt held by the public in January 2001: $3.4 trillion
Debt held by the public in November 2008: $6.3 trillion
Statutory debt limit* in January 2001: $5.6 trillion
Statutory debt limit* now: $11.3 trillion
*(Statutory debt limit includes debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings)

Foreign-Held Debt:
Foreign-held debt: $2.7 trillion - more than two and half times its level in 2001
More than 80 cents of every dollar of new debt is bought by foreign investors

Interest on National Debt:
Fiscal Year 2008 debt service as projected in 2001: $27 billion
Fiscal Year 2008 debt service (actual): $249 billion

Tax Cuts:
Cost of Administration's proposed tax cuts over the next ten years: $3.6 trillion (with interest: $4.4 trillion)

Jobs:
Jobs growth under Clinton: 237,000 new jobs per month
Jobs growth under Bush: 47,600 new jobs per month (less than half the growth necessary to keep pace with growth in the labor force)
Close to 4 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since January 2001
Over 1.35 million private payroll jobs have been lost since December 2007

Median Family Income:
Median family income (2007): $50,233 per year
Change since 2000: -$324 in real terms

Poverty in the U.S.:
Number of people in poverty: 37.3 million, or 12.5%
Number of children in poverty: 13.3 million, or 18%
Nearly 6 million more people were living in poverty in 2007 than in 2000

Information current as of November 7, 2008