The U.S. budget reached a record $2.06 trillion deficit in the first eight months of the budget year, while spending is up 19.7% from the same time period in 2020, a Treasury Department budget report shows.
The monthly report, released Thursday, showed that this year's deficit is 9.7% higher than the same period last year when it sat at $1.88 trillion. Government tax revenue has grown by 29.1% to a $2.61 trillion total, compared to last year, the Associated Press reported.
The increased spending figures are caused, in part, by tax payments that were issued a month earlier this year than in 2020. The government has also funneled trillions of dollars into COVID-19 relief with three separate stimulus packages since March 2020.
The most recent package pushed out in March cost the government $1.9 trillion. Additional support initiatives, such as emergency unemployment benefits and forgivable loans, were worth billions of dollars.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The deficit for the budget year that ended September 30 totaled a record $3.1 trillion. President Joe Biden, who released his first budget earlier this month, is projecting that this year's deficit will total $3.67 trillion and will remain above $1 trillion every year over the next decade, reflecting his ambitious plans to boost spending on infrastructure and American families.
The annual federal deficit first topped $1 trillion in 2009 and remained above that level for four years as a deep recession triggered by the 2008 financial crisis depressed tax revenues and led to increased government spending to fight the downturn.
The deficit in May totaled $132 billion, compared to a deficit in May 2020 of $398.8 billion that heavy spending on the initial pandemic relief programs and the delay of the tax deadline.
