RIGHT SPEAK: 2024's Deficit Is Already On Track To Be The Worst Since COVID; School Districts Have Nine Months to Spend Billions in Unused COVID Relief Funds, and other C-Virus related stories

2024's Deficit Is Already On Track To Be The Worst Since COVID:

Weakness in the US economy continues to hide behind surging debt levels and government spending. As noted last month by Daniel Lacalle,

[A] large part of the growth in GDP came from bloated government spending financed with more debt and inventory revaluation, adding 0.8 and 1.4 percentage points to GDP growth. ...

The increase in gross domestic product between the third quarter of 2022 and the same period of 2023 was a mere $414.3 billion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, while the increase in public debt was $1.3 trillion ($32.3 to $33.6 trillion, according to the Treasury).

The United States is now in the worst year of growth, excluding public debt accumulation since the thirties.

This trend is continuing at least into the first quarter of the new fiscal year, as it is apparent that total public debt isn't slowing down.

According to the latest monthly statement from the Treasury Department, the total budget deficit for the 2024 fiscal year (which began October 1) has already risen above $380 billion. The new total, which includes the months of October and November, puts the US on track for a total annual deficit of more than $2 trillion by the end of the fiscal year. That would be an increase of more than 25 percent over 2023 fiscal year, which was itself a 23 percent increase over 2022.

A 2024 annual deficit of $2 trillion would make 2024's deficit the third-largest deficit ever, behind only 2020 and 2021 during which federal spending in covid-related social benefits were seemingly unlimited. --->READ MORE HERE

School districts have nine months to spend billions in unused COVID relief funds:

The last batch of COVID-19 relief funding for public schools allocated by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is set to expire at the end of September 2024 — and states and school districts still have billions in unspent funds.

According to data from the Department of Education, not a single state has managed to spend all of its allocated funding for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which was first created by the CARES Act of 2020 and bolstered by two subsequent allocations, including the American Rescue Plan Act enacted in the first months of President Joe Biden's administration.

The total allocation for schools from the three laws is roughly $189.5 billion, including $121.97 billion that came from the American Rescue Plan alone. But as the calendar turns to 2024, states and school districts have an increasingly condensed time frame in which to spend their remaining funds, which are set to expire on Sept. 30.

According to the Department of Education's COVID-19 relief funding tracker, Iowa is the only state that has even spent more than 80% of its allocated funds. The state was given $1.19 billion and has spent $977 million to date. But Iowa still has more than $200 million in funds to spend over the next nine months.

The state with the least amount of ESSER money is not even a state. Washington, D.C., was allocated $600 million in ESSER funds across the three relief packages, including $386 million from the American Rescue Plan. To date, the public schools in the nation's capital have spent 40%, or $240 million, of their allotted funds.

As for the nation's most populous states, California has spent 65% of the $23 billion it was allocated, and New York has spent 50% of the $14 billion it received. Texas received $19 billion and has spent 71% of it, while Florida has spent 68% of the $10.9 billion it was allotted.

But that leaves billions of dollars of relief funding unspent heading into the final months of the pandemic-era programs. In theory, schools will lose access to money they didn't use by October without intervention from Congress. --->READ MORE HERE