Here’s What You Could Buy With June’s Federal Budget Deficit

The Treasury Department recorded a federal budget deficit of $74.9 billion in June, an astronomical number that actually represented a significant decrease from the same month last year.

To date, the federal government has racked up a deficit of $607.1 billion in the 2018 fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The budget shortfall has risen about 16 percent from the same period last year, when it was at $523.1 billion. But this June’s deficit was actually 17 percent lower than last June’s shortage of $90.2 billion.

Still, $74.9 billion is a big number. How big? Well, to give you an idea, here are some things you could buy with all that dough:

• 340 million ounces of “medium to high-quality” marijuana in Colorado, which costs about $220 an ounce, according to High Times.
• 187 million Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, which currently go for $399 apiece on ClassicFirearms.com.
• A pair of Washington Nationals season tickets at their “most expensive price level” for more than 1 million years’ worth of games, according to The Atlantic (of particular interest if you’re Judge Brett Kavanaugh). One such seat costs about $35,000 per season.
• A 2,565-year stay at the Hotel President Wilson’s Royal Penthouse Suite in Geneva, Switzerland. According to Travel + Leisure, a one-night stay in the suite starts at about $80,000.
• Almost 75 million iPhone Xs, which will set you back $999 a pop.
• 1,070 Gulfstream G-650 private jets, which start at around $70 million each.
• 37.45 billion Bacon McDoubles at McDonald’s. The sandwiches only cost $2 each, which really isn’t bad for two beef patties, cheese, and bacon.

The federal government’s deficit for just one month represents only a small fraction of our national debt, which currently exceeds $21 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office projected last month that the national debt could surpass 152 percent of the annual gross domestic product by 2048, and Social Security will likely be insolvent by 2034.

Maybe Congress should spend less money?