The federal budget deficit totaled nearly $1.4 trillion in the first three quarters of the 2023 fiscal year, according to the latest monthly budget review from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.
The deficit was $875 billion larger from October 2022 to June 2023 compared to a year earlier, with revenues 11% lower and outlays 10% higher. Revenues from individual income and payroll taxes fell by 10%, while outlays increased for Social Security (11%), Medicare (17%) and Medicaid (8%).
The CBO expects the full-year deficit to be $1.5 trillion. However, as the monthly report notes, there is considerable uncertainty about the final three months of the fiscal year, given the Supreme Court’s decision to prohibit the Biden administration’s plan to cancel student debt. That plan was recorded as an outlay in 2022; its cancelation is expected to be recorded “as outlay savings of at least $300 billion” in the final months of the fiscal year.
