The U. S. has borrowed $5 billion each day this fiscal year

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, August 8, 2024- The United States borrowed $1.5 trillion in the first ten months of fiscal year 2024, including $242 billion in July, according to the latest Monthly Budget Review from the Congressional Budget Office. 

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

We’re nearly at the end of fiscal year 2024, and while most of America is focused on the momentum in the race for the White House, beneath the surface our nation’s fiscal health has continued to worsen. We’ve just surpassed $35 trillion in gross debt, and today’s CBO projections estimate we’ve borrowed another $242 billion in July, or $5 billion each day this fiscal year.

Regardless of who wins this November, the next president will have to confront a laundry list of fiscal decisions shortly into their term, including trillions in expiring tax provisions, a debt ceiling that will need to be raised or suspended, expiring spending caps, and major trust funds edging ever close to insolvency. These decisions will have lasting impacts beyond the next four years, whether we choose to address them thoughtfully and responsibly, or whether we choose to continue down the path of careless indifference. 

Our fiscal trajectory cannot be left on autopilot – the stakes are far too high and the consequences far too steep to leave our national debt climbing in perpetuity. Considering the sheer size of the challenges we already face – interest costs on course to exceed our defense and Medicare budgets, deficits barreling toward $2 trillion, and no plan in the works to turn things around – how can we afford to sit idle any longer? 

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