As the midterm election campaign approaches its climax, the federal deficit has pushed its way back into the political discussion.

New government numbers show the deficit is on the rise.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the preliminary federal budget deficit was $782 billion in fiscal year 2018 — $116 billion more than the shortfall in fiscal year 2017.

What happened?

Democrats blamed the Republican-backed tax bill that passed in December 2017, citing CBO’s earlier finding that the law would increase the deficit by almost $1.9 trillion over 10 years.

Republicans pointed to a broader issue of growth in programs such as Social Security and Medicare. "It’s a bipartisan problem — unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Bloomberg.

As it happens, both sides are talking past each other.

"Never in our history has so much been promised for the future — promises on both sides for high spending growth and low taxes that cannot possibly be sustained," said Eugene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute. The two parties "compete in proclaiming what they will give us, but they never tell our kids how many of the bills are being passed onto them."

Let’s take a closer look at federal spending, tax revenues, the deficit and the debt.

The scope of federal spending, revenues and deficits