Monthly Budget Review for August 2018: “The federal budget deficit was $895 billion for the first 11 months of fiscal year 2018, the Congressional Budget Office estimates, $222 billion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year. Revenues were 1 percent higher than in the same period in fiscal year 2017, but outlays rose by about 7 percent. As was the case last year, this year’s outlays were affected by shifts in the timing of certain payments that otherwise would have been due on a weekend or a holiday. If not for those shifts, the increase in the deficit would have been smaller: The deficit for the 11-month period would have been $154 billion larger than last year’s amount. Excluding the effects of those timing shifts, the increase in outlays was 4.7 percent, and about one-quarter of the increase was for interest on the public debt…”