OCT 8, 2026 BUDGETS & PROJECTIONS
The United States borrowed $2.0 trillion in FY 2026, including $28 billion in the month of September, according to the latest Monthly Budget Review from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). We expect to hear more details on FY 2026 from CBO next month.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
Fiscal Year 2026 has come to an end and CBO confirmed our estimate that the deficit totaled $2 trillion. That’s over $200 billion more than last fiscal year and ranks among the highest deficits in our history – and the highest ever outside of a war or recession. It is no surprise that interest rates have climbed so much over the past few months.
Instead of following the same broken pattern, policymakers should set a fiscal new year’s resolution to fix our unsustainable fiscal situation. They should commit to no new borrowing, including by requiring any new costs to come with double the amount of savings, invoking Super PAYGO. And with the nation’s major trust funds – the largest being the Social Security retirement trust fund – facing insolvency in the coming years, both sides of the aisle should work together to restore solvency and avoid the automatic across-the-board benefit and payment cuts.
A new fiscal year means an opportunity for change, and though it is not always easy, it is necessary. Policymakers can start by adopting an attainable fiscal goal – such as bringing deficits down to 3% of the economy, or about half of where they are today – and commit to achieving it, which can be done through a bipartisan fiscal commission that examines all areas of the budget.
Clearly, we can’t keep going like we have. Our fiscal path has been running backwards for far too long; it’s time to start working on the path forward.
Here are the deficits for the last 10 completed fiscal years, using the standard federal budget deficit measure (not the national debt).
Fiscal year Federal deficit
2016 $587 billion
2017 $666 billion
2018 $779 billion
2019 $984 billion
2020 $3.132 trillion (Covid year)
2021 $2.772 trillion ( Covid year)
2022 $1.375 trillion
2023 $1.695 trillion
2024 $1.833 trillion
2025 $1.775 trillion
2026 $2.0 trillion
Sources: U.S. Treasury data compiled by Chartly, and the U.S. Treasury’s financial statements. Figures are rounded to the nearest billion.
government spending must be cut. Do not raise revenue until congress cooperates with reducing government size first. More revenue just means more spending
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The “starving the beast” strategy eh? It never works. Everytime revenue is capped or reduced, we still spend more, and have a wise deficit.
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Worse*
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The budget and spending is determined by Congress. The last time the U.S. Congress passed all 12 regular appropriations bills on time (through regular order before the start of the fiscal year on October 1) was for fiscal year 1997, which was enacted in 1996 – during the Clinton Administration.
Since then, there hasn’t been any real, consistent push for reduced spending. The closest we got was when Congressional majorities were Republican with President Obama – when Republicans were repeatedly punished for their efforts to moderate the increase in spending, which resulted in government shutdowns.
Simply, no member of Congress gets reelected by reducing spending.
And, many have been reelected by buying votes through increased spending.
Blaming Trump 2 for deficit spending is just as stupid as it would be to blame Biden, Trump 1, Obama, Bush 2. And, crediting Clinton for the last balanced budget would be just as stupid – blame/credit belongs solely to Congress.
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