CBO Estimates $696 Billion Deficit for First Four Months of FY 2026
The United States borrowed $696 billion in the first four months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, including $94 billion in January, 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:
We are only a third into FY 2026, and yet we remain in the routine of endless borrowing. We have already borrowed a total of $696 billion in the first four months of FY 2026, with $94 billion borrowed in the month of January alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office. If we continue to borrow at this rate, it leaves us on the path to another year of a $1.8 trillion or higher deficit.
If these estimates aren’t alarming enough, the national debt continues to climb toward record levels – equaling about the size of the entire U.S. economy today. Not only is the debt at near-record highs, but interest payments on the debt will total more than $1 trillion annually for the foreseeable future.
Unless lawmakers want record-high debts and deficits to be our norm, both sides of the aisle must come together to address our unsustainable borrowing. The longer lawmakers wait, the higher the price for Americans.
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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director for Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.
