Treasury: $262 Billion Deficit in February

The Treasury Department released its latest Monthly Treasury Statement today, showing that the United States borrowed $262 billion in the month of February and $723 billion since the beginning of fiscal year 2023.

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

In Fiscal Year 2023, we’ve borrowed $4.8 billion per day for a total of $723 billion thus far. Both the Congressional Budget Office and the White House estimate that this will at least double over the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. That is a truly stunning amount given that we are far from the worst days of the pandemic or any other national emergency.

The President’s budget released yesterday proposed $3 trillion of deficit reduction – we will need a lot more than that to get our fiscal situation under control. It’s time to stop pretending this is normal and start taking action on ensuring the debt doesn’t grow out of control.

We now await the House and Senate Budget Committees to release their budgets. These plans should be presented, debated, and reconciled in a timely manner to enact a budget deal that improves our situation. We’ve offered a way forward for stabilizing our debt and addressing record-high inflation. We urge lawmakers to meet this moment.

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