The US budget deficit for 2026 reaches $1.911 trillion

According to the statement issued by the office, this deficit is six billion dollars less than the deficit recorded during the same period of the last fiscal year, as revenues increased by 154 billion dollars, while expenditures increased by 147 billion dollars.

Analysts indicated that the current deficit would have been $82 billion higher than last year had part of the scheduled payments not been postponed to August instead of September 1, given that that day fell on the Labor Day holiday.

This deficit confirms previous expectations that suggested the deficit would exceed the two trillion dollar mark, as estimates by the Budget Office last February indicated a deficit of $1.853 trillion. With this number, the 2026 deficit becomes the third largest in the history of the United States, after the deficits in 2020 ($3.1 trillion) and 2021 ($2.8 trillion), which were the result of massive spending during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Data indicate that the US public debt has already exceeded a record level of $40 trillion, exceeding the size of the entire US economy, at a rate of about $117,000 per American resident. Interest payments on this debt constitute one of the main reasons for the continuing deficit, as it is expected to exceed one trillion dollars during the current fiscal year.

Maya McGinnis, Chair of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warned that “$2 trillion deficits were previously unheard of outside major recessions, but they are now the norm,” calling for urgent deficit reduction.