CBO Estimates Spending Up $166 billion in 2025

The federal government spent $2.4 trillion from January through April 2025 – up $166 billion from January through April 2024, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Tax receipts in April pushed borrowing for the first four months of the year $5 billion lower than last year.  

CBO estimates the U.S. borrowed $1.1 trillion in the first seven months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025.

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

CBO’s estimates make clear that we are continuing to spend more in 2025 than we did last year. Since the beginning of 2025, the federal government has spent $2.4 trillion -- $166 billion more than in the same four months of 2024. Because of strong tax receipts in April 2025, the deficit is down a modest $5 billion in the first four months of this year compared to last year.

We have borrowed $1.1 trillion in the first seven months of FY 2025. We are still very much on track to borrow close to $2 trillion this fiscal year. That should be alarming to everyone.

Instead of continuing to add to our record high national debt with trillions in unpaid-for tax cuts and spending increases, lawmakers should come together to seriously address our unsustainable fiscal outlook.

Our fiscal outlook is on a destructive path, and it is about time we do something to fix it.  

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