Treasury: $1.9 Trillion Deficit in First 11 Months of Fiscal Year

The United States borrowed $1.9 trillion in the first eleven months of fiscal year 2024, including $380 billion in August, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement from the Treasury Department.

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

We’re still a month away from the end of this fiscal year, but based on today’s numbers from the Treasury, we know this year will go down as a fiscal flop. August saw a massive $380 billion in borrowing, and we’ve seen $6 billion borrowed per day this fiscal year. What an astounding figure.

America faces steep fiscal challenges in the very near future – next year alone, we’ll need to confront the multi-trillion question of extending the 2017 tax cuts, we’ll need to raise the debt ceiling, and we’ll need to address the expiration of discretionary spending caps. In just three years, the national debt will be at a higher share of the economy than any point in history. And in less than a decade, the Social Security retirement trust fund will go insolvent, leaving beneficiaries with automatic and across-the-board cuts without action.

Given these pressing deadlines, it’s more important than ever for the presidential candidates to take seriously the threats posed by high and rising debt and deficits. Yet the debate earlier this week was another opportunity for fiscal clarity that fell flat – instead, we heard far more about what the candidates propose for new spending and tax cuts than we heard about how they will pay for them.

Both elected officials and candidates for our nation’s highest office will need to pivot towards the specifics on deficit reduction – and soon – if we’re ever going to see a more responsible federal budget become a reality.

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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director for Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.