CBO Reports $63 Billion Deficit for May

The United States borrowed $423 billion in the first eight months of fiscal year 2022, with a $63 billion deficit in May, according to the latest Monthly Budget Review from the Congressional Budget Office. The budget deficit has declined $1,641 billion since the same time last year, due in large part to the end of COVID spending measures and high inflation but remains similar to, but slightly lower than, 2019 levels – when the country ran a trillion-dollar deficit.

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

We are glad to see the recent deficit drop, thanks largely to expiring COVID relief and record inflation, but we know that won’t last long. Trillion-dollar deficits are here to stay, and CBO projects we’ll have $2 trillion deficits in less than a decade. New proposals to cancel student debt or fail to offset new veterans’ benefits will make a bad situation worse, as will extending policies currently slated to expire.

Over the past eight months, we’ve borrowed $1.7 billion per day, and we’ve recently been hit with a slew of bad fiscal news. Medicare is only 6 years from insolvency, while Social Security is only 13 years away. And even under current law, CBO is now projecting debt to hit a record 110 percent of GDP within a decade. It’s time to take stock of our fiscal situation and pivot to real deficit reduction.

With inflation roaring, Congress needs to tighten their purse strings, not pull out another credit card.

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For more information, please contact Kim McIntyre, Director of Media Relations, at mcintyre@crfb.org