CBO Estimates $1.1 Trillion Deficit For First 6 Months Of Fiscal Year 2023

In the first six months of fiscal year 2023, the United States borrowed $1.1 trillion, with a $376 billion deficit in February, according to the latest Monthly Budget Review from the Congressional Budget Office. The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Only halfway through the fiscal year and we’ve already borrowed $1.1 trillion – a massive $6 billion per day. Yet lawmakers have done little to write a budget and figure out a plan for how to slow this endless flow of borrowing.

Our fiscal challenges will only become more difficult the longer we wait to do anything. In just five years, the national debt will surpass its record as a share of the economy – set just after World War II, when we had no choice but to borrow to win the war. However, we’re in no such emergency now. It’s long past time that policymakers figure out a way to sustainably finance their priorities, not just add the costs to the national credit card.

By the end of the decade, if lawmakers do nothing, the deficit will approach $3 trillion. That amount of borrowing outside of a national emergency is plainly unacceptable.

Budgeting requires tradeoffs – often painful ones that politicians don’t want to grapple with. However, that is what they were elected to do, and they should consider the needs of both current and future Americans in upcoming fiscal negotiations. We simply cannot afford to ignore our unsustainable borrowing any longer.

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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Communications Manager, at klucher@crfb.org.