U.S. federal budget deficit swells amid fiscal uncertainties

 WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government registered a budget deficit¹ of about 69.6 billion U.S. dollars in July, bringing the total budget gap for the first 10 months of this fiscal² year near the 1-trillion-dollar mark.

The aggregate³ deficit through July totaled 973.8 billion dollars, the U.S. Treasury⁴ Department reported on Friday.

The level was 11.5 percent lower than the imbalance for the same period of last fiscal year, but still put the country on track for a deficit of over 1 trillion dollars for the fourth consecutive⁵ fiscal year.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan budgetaryand economic research agency for the U.S. Congress, predicted that the federal government would run a budget deficit of about 1.17 trillion dollars in the current fiscal year, a slight reduction from the 1.3-trillion-dollar budget deficit recorded in the 2011 fiscal year.

Facing growing pressures from fiscal challenges brought about by tax hikes and automatic spending cuts scheduled to kick in early next year, Democrats⁶ and Republicans at the Congress are still at odds⁷ over how to bring the fiscal policy back to a sustainable path.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Democrats called for a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes for the wealthy. They plan to let Bush-era tax credits expire for families making more than 250,000 dollars a year. Republicans rejected the tax increases on top earners and wanted deeper cuts in social programs.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives and Democrat-led Senate have passed their proposals respectively before a five- week recess⁸. They are poised⁹ for a showdown on the deficit and taxes at the year end.

1 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

2 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

3 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。

4 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

5 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

6 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

8 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

9 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。