FY 2021 Deficit Already Passed $1 Trillion Threshold

For Immediate Release

The United States’ budget deficit for the first five months of fiscal year 2021 has eclipsed $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This year’s deficit was projected to reach $2.3 trillion, but that does not include the expected passage of the American Rescue Plan. Below is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

We’re now on course to run $3 trillion deficits two years in a row. We shouldn’t hesitate to borrow what’s necessary to end the pandemic and support the economic recovery. But we can’t pretend this borrowing is costless.

It used to take us years to borrow $1 trillion. Now we're borrowing that much in just five months.

Going forward, we need to start paying for new priorities with new revenue and budget savings. And ultimately, once the economy has recovered, we’re going to have to bring our deficits down to more sustainable levels.

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