Treasury Confirms $1.2 Trillion Deficit for First 8 Months of FY 2026

The United States borrowed $1.2 trillion in the first eight months of Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, including $293 billion in May, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement from the Treasury Department.

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

Another month’s budget results means yet another reminder of just how routine our unsustainable borrowing has become. The borrowing train continues unabated with the budget deficit already totaling $1.2 trillion for the first eight months of FY 2026, according to the Treasury Department. What’s more, the Treasury Department itself has already projected that we are on track to borrow $2 trillion or more this fiscal year.  

Month after month these numbers are published, and each time it should force us to recognize our unsustainable fiscal trajectory. It’s time to get serious about our fiscal situation and put in place significant deficit reduction. We can start by targeting 3% of GDP deficits and then enacting the necessary policy changes to get there.

Getting to a sustainable budget also means putting Social Security and Medicare on good fiscal footing – both programs’ trust funds are on course to insolvency, with Social Security’s retirement fund in six years and Medicare’s hospital fund just half a year later. We need trust fund solutions, reductions to wasteful spending, increases in revenues, and other changes to correct our fiscal course. 

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