Coronavirus spending pushes U.S. 2020 fiscal year deficit (赤字) to record $3.132 trillion

The U.S. budget deficit hit a record $3.132 trillion during fiscal 2020, more than triple the 2019 shortfall due to massive coronavirus rescue spending, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday.

The deficit more than doubled the previous record of $1.416 trillion in fiscal 2009, when the United States     1     a financial crisis.

At the start of the 2020 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the U.S. government had been     2     to rack up a $1 trillion deficit before coronavirus lockdowns began in March, shutting down large     3     of the travel, retail and small business sectors of the economy.

Outlays for fiscal 2020 jumped $2.105 trillion from 2019 to a total of $6.55 trillion, with the increase made up almost     4     from coronavirus aid programs: increased healthcare costs, stimulus checks and unemployment     5    , along with the cost of small business and corporate rescue programs     6     by Congress.

As a result of programs that kept paychecks flowing to laid off workers through September, receipts for the full year fell only about 1% or $43 billion from fiscal 2019, totaling $3.42 trillion.

The final fiscal 2020 deficit numbers come as the Trump administration and Congress have been unable to agree on a new round of coronavirus     7    , with many Senate Republicans calling for fiscal     8     in another package.

A joint statement from the U.S. Treasury and the White House Office of Management and Budget     9     an "incredible comeback" of economic activities as businesses reopened over the summer months.

"The administration remains fully     10     to supporting American workers, families, and businesses and to ensuring that our robust economic rebound continues," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

In September, the year's final month, the U.S. budget deficit was $125 billion, compared with an $83 billion surplus in September 2019, the Treasury said.

China Daily is an English language daily newspaper     1     in Beijing, China.

China Daily     2     all the usual sections (版面) of a newspaper,     3     Home News — news about China, International News —news from     4    , Business News, Travel News and Sports News.

There are     5     pictures and a weather report every day. Every Saturday there is a section about things to do at the weekend and the TV     6     in the coming week.

Many foreigners like to read this newspaper. It is also popular with students. Sun Yao, a student in Beijing, said, “I like reading China Daily. Learning new words and useful expressions can make great     7     to my progress in English. Besides, I enjoy learning about new things from     8     to sports and music.”

China has set two important centenary goals. The first one is to build a moderately prosperous society in all     1    by 2020, to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. The second is to achieve a modern socialist country by the middle of the 21st century in honor of the centenary of the People’s Republic of China.

The 19th CPC National Congress was the last Party Congress before the    2     year of the first goal and experts say it has a great historical importance.

"it will be a milestone. It will not only wrap up the experience of building the economy, society and the Party in the last five years since the 18th National Congress, but also    3     up a blueprint for the next five years, and even longer. It will focus on how to realize a prosperous society, and even how to build a strong modern socialist country," said Wang, secretary-general of the China Society of Administrative Reform.

People are expecting new    4     to the Party's constitution. And just as China's former top leaders formed their own theories of     5     such as Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory, the current General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Xi Jinping, is expected to summarize his own.

“The Central Committee, with Xi Jinping at the core, has created new ideas, thoughts and strategies. With five years of work experience, they will have a clearer     6    of thoughts.” said Wang.

“People are expecting new achievements in the Party theory which     7     the past five years work. They will be put into the Party's constitution to guide the party and the people,” said Professor Zhang with the School of the CPC Central Committee. Zhang expressed belief that the 19th CPC National Congress has built a more strict system for Party- governance, and form a comprehensive discipline-supervision system    8     Party members.

Experts also expect that improving people's livelihoods will be another highlight of the    9    Congress. And practical solutions to prevent the sky-rocketing housing prices, narrow the gap between the wealthy and the poor, and    10     poverty will be on the schedule of brainstorming.

Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave in the movement that fought to end slavery in the United States. He became a    1     voice in the year before the Civil War.

A few weeks ago, the National Park Service (NPS)     2    Douglass’s birth and Black History Month with reopening of his home at Cedar Hill, a    3     site in Washington. D.C. The two-story house, which contains many of Douglass’s personal possessions, had undergone a three-year     4    . (Thanks to the NTS website, however, you don’t have to live in the nation’s capital to visit it. Take a tour online.)

He was born in Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to a slave mother and a white father who never knew Douglass grew uo to become the first black     5     to hold a government office--- as US minister and consul general （总领事）to Haiti.

As a youth, he never went to school. Educating slaves was illegal in the South, so he     6     taught himself to read and write. At 21 years old, he escaped from his slave owner to Massachusetts and changed his last name to Douglass, to hide his identity.

In the 1850s, Douglass was involved with the Underground Railroad, the system     7     up by antislavery groups to bring runaway slaves to the North and Canada. His home in Rochester, N.Y. was near the Canadian border. It became an important station on the     8    , housing as many as 11 runaway slaves at a time.

He died in 1895. In his lifetime, Douglass     9     the end of slavery in 1865 and the adoption of the 15^th Amendment to the US Constitution （美国宪法修正案）, which     10     African-Americans the right to vote.