{"id":48581,"date":"2025-10-15T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48581"},"modified":"2025-10-15T21:11:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T02:11:28","slug":"shutdown-could-cost-us-economy-15-billion-a-week-treasury-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=48581","title":{"rendered":"Shutdown could cost US economy $15 billion a week, Treasury says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Summary<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bessent earlier estimated cost of shutdown at up to $15 billion a day<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bessent says shutdown is cutting &#8216;into muscle&#8217; of US economy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">US Treasury chief says deficit was lower in fiscal 2025<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bessent says tech, investment boom is sustainable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Washington, Oct 15 (Reuters) &#8211; The two-week-old federal government shutdown may cost the U.S. economy as much as $15 billion a week in lost output, a Treasury official said late on Wednesday, correcting an earlier statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that put the cost at up to $15 billion per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bessent used the incorrect estimate in two separate appearances earlier on Wednesday, while urging Democrats to &#8220;be heroes&#8221; and side with Republicans to end it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">A Treasury official said the cost estimate was based on a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Economic-Consequences-of-a-Government-Shutdown-4.pdf\"><u>report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, opens new tab<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bessent told a news conference that the shutdown was starting to &#8220;cut into muscle&#8221; of the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The wave of investment into the U.S. economy, including into artificial intelligence, is sustainable and is only getting started, but the federal government shutdown is increasingly an impediment, Bessent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;There is pent-up demand, but then President (Donald) Trump has unleashed this boom with his policies,&#8221; Bessent said at a CNBC event held on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;The only thing slowing us down here is this government shutdown,&#8221; Bessent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He said that incentives in the Republican tax law and Trump&#8217;s tariffs would keep the investment boom going and fuel continued growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;I think we can be in a period like the late 1800s when railroads came in, like the 1990s when we got the internet and office tech boom,&#8221; Bessent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>US DEFICIT HAS SHRUNK, BESSENT SAYS<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Bessent also said that the U.S. deficit for the 2025 fiscal year ended September 30 was smaller than the $1.833 trillion deficit posted in the prior fiscal year. He did not provide a figure, but said that the deficit-to-GDP ratio could come down to the 3% range in coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The Treasury Department has not yet reported the annual deficit figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The Congressional Budget Office&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2025-10\/60306-MBR.pdf\"><u>estimated last week, opens new tab<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;that the U.S. fiscal 2025 deficit fell only slightly to $1.817 trillion despite a $118 billion jump in customs revenue from Trump&#8217;s tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">&#8220;The deficit-to-GDP, which is the important number, now has a five in front of it,&#8221; Bessent said at the CNBC event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Asked if he wanted to see a three at the start of the deficit-to-GDP ratio, Bessent said, &#8220;Yes, it&#8217;s still possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He added that the ratio would come down if the U.S. could &#8220;grow more, spend less, and constrain spending.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/us-investment-boom-is-sustainable-bessent-says-2025-10-15\/\">reuters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, Oct 15 (Reuters) &#8211; The two-week-old federal government shutdown may cost the U.S. economy as much as $15 billion a week in lost output, a Treasury official said late on Wednesday, correcting an earlier statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that put the cost at up to $15 billion per day. Bessent used the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[2074,26629,22698,3439],"class_list":["post-48581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-economy","tag-gdp","tag-government-shutdown","tag-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48583,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48581\/revisions\/48583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}