As Democrats and Republicans dig in during the latest government shutdown, the Congressional Budget Office released its monthly spending report on Wednesday projecting that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2025 will run $1.8 trillion.

The good news is that the amount of red ink shrunk by about $8 billion from fiscal 2024. The bad news is that this is considered good news. The national debt now rushes toward $38 trillion. The report also notes that interest paid on the debt topped $1 trillion for the first time in fiscal 2025, which ended Oct. 1.

The deficit is now running roughly 6 percent of gross domestic product, a number never before hit during peacetime, save for the pandemic. And, once again, the numbers reveal that the nation has a spending problem, not a revenue shortage. Ta

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