Treasury: $532 Billion Deficit in First 4 Months of Fiscal Year

The United States borrowed $532 billion in the first four months of fiscal year 2024, including $22 billion in January, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement from the Treasury Department.

In the past 12 months, the U.S. government has borrowed $1.8 trillion – or $2.1 trillion excluding the effects of the overturned student debt cancellation. Read our analysis on this here.

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

Today’s Treasury numbers confirm what we learned from last week’s Congressional Budget Office report and, frankly, what we’ve known for far too long: America is marching steadily along an unsustainable path. In the past four months, we’ve borrowed more than $4 billion per day; in the past 12 months, we’ve borrowed $1.8 trillion. How much longer can we pretend this is acceptable?

For years we’ve been told that the consequences of fiscal carelessness are a future issue, something we will have decades to prepare for and avoid. But we’re seeing the reality of those consequences now. This year alone, interest payments on the national debt will surpass both defense and Medicare spending and be a stone’s throw from becoming the largest part of the budget. In four years, debt will hit a new record share of the economy. And the trust funds for Medicare Hospital Insurance, Social Security retirement benefits, and highway spending are marching toward insolvency within a decade.

We have a long list of fiscal issues to tackle, and we now know we have even less time to address them. We also know what we have to do to improve our fiscal health for ourselves and future generations – so let’s get to work.

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