The most recent federal numbers present the U.S. deficit is hovering as President Joe Biden heads out of workplace.
The U.S. Congressional Finances Workplace launched its month-to-month funds overview on Monday, which confirmed that within the first two months of this fiscal yr, the federal authorities has run up a deficit of $622 billion.
“That quantity is $242 billion greater than the deficit recorded throughout the identical interval final fiscal yr,” CBO mentioned in its report.
That determine means the deficit is sort of 40% greater than this time final yr.
“Probably the most alarming turkey in November was the federal authorities’s incapacity to reside inside its means,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Accountable Federal Finances, mentioned in a press release. “We’re solely two months into the fiscal yr, and we have now already borrowed a staggering $622 billion, with $365 billion within the month of November alone.”
Deficits by no means surpassed one trillion {dollars} earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, they continue to be properly above one trillion and for this subsequent fiscal yr are properly past the tempo to surpass $1 trillion.
The deficit final fiscal yr was about $1.8 trillion.
Billionaire Elon Musk, now an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, lamented the debt, which is about $36 trillion, on X Monday.
“If we don’t repair the deficit, every little thing will undergo, together with important spending like DoD, Medicare & Social Safety,” Musk mentioned. “It’s not elective.”
CBO did clarify that among the enhance is from accounting modifications.
From CBO:
The change within the deficit was influenced by the timing of outlays and revenues alike. Outlays in October 2023 had been decreased by shifts within the timing of sure federal funds that in any other case would have been due on October 1, 2023, which fell on a Sunday. (These funds had been made in September 2023.) Outlays in November 2024 had been boosted by the shift to that month of funds due December 1, 2024, a Saturday. If not for these shifts, the deficit to this point in fiscal yr 2025 would have been $541 billion, or $88 billion greater than the shortfall at this level final yr, and outlays would have been $38 billion extra.”
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
