Treasury Confirms Calendar Year 2023 Deficit Tops $1.8 Trillion

The Treasury Department released the Monthly Treasury Statement for December, showing the United States borrowed $1.8 trillion in calendar year 2023, $510 billion in the first three months of fiscal year 2024, and $129 billion in December.

Read our full analysis of the 12-month rolling deficit here.

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

Borrowing $1.8 trillion during a period of strong growth is nothing short of fiscal mismanagement.  This is bad for the economy, bad for our national security, and bad for the future of our country.    

When it comes to fiscal policymaking, 2023 was a remarkably good year, with $1.3 trillion of ten-year net deficit reduction. With the next government funding deadline approaching quickly, lawmakers need to work together to prevent a shutdown while preserving the savings enacted in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.  

However, even with last year’s improvements, there is a lot more work to do in order to put the debt on a downward sustainable path. With debt held by the public nearing $27 trillion and gross debt totaling more than $34 trillion, we’ll need to build on last year’s progress soon.

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