CBO Reports Record $863 Billion Deficit in June

For Immediate Release

The United States budget deficit for the month of June was a record $863 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The total budget for the first nine months of fiscal year 2020 now stands at $2.7 trillion, as the federal government continues to disburse fiscal aid related to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession. Below is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

“The good news is this means we’re getting fiscal relief out the door fast. The bad news is that we’re having to borrow record amounts on top of so much unpaid for spending and tax cuts that lawmakers approved in the past few years.

“With Congress set to negotiate another round of fiscal aid later this month, this reinforces two key points. One, we need to make sure any additional borrowing is for needs related to the pandemic, not political pet projects. Two, when the virus is contained and the economy has recovered, lawmakers cannot afford to ignore the trajectory of our debt any longer.

“The national debt will exceed the size of the economy by the end of the year and grow to approximately 121% of GDP by 2030, well above the post-World War II record of 106% of GDP. Congress needs to take serious fiscal action when the time is right.”

Key highlights from today’s report:

• The $2.7 trillion deficit year-to-date is more than triple the deficit from the same period from last year
• Outlays this year to date have been $5 trillion, 49 percent higher than last year
• Unemployment insurance spending totaled $116 billion in June, up from $2 billion in June 2019
  • More than half of the increase stems from the $600 weekly boost in benefits from the CARES Act
• Net interest on the debt declined from $40 billion in June 2019 to $18 billion in June 2020.
• Major April through June changes compared to the same period last year include:
  • 37 percent ($348 billion) decrease in individual and payroll tax collections
  • 91 percent ($88 billion) decrease in corporate income tax collections
  • 70 percent ($15 billion) drop in excise tax revenue
• Outlays for the Small Business Administration, which oversees the Paycheck Protection Program, totaled $537 billion, compared to $300 million last year – a 178,900 percent increase

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For more information, please contact John Buhl, director of media relations, at buhl@crfb.org.