The federal budget deficit came to an estimated $2.0 trillion in the first 11 months of the 2026 fiscal year, according to the latest monthly analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.
The total is $6 billion smaller than the total recorded in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2025, but that’s largely due to calendar effects, such as the timing of Labor Day, CBO said. If not for those effects, the deficit in 2026 would be $82 billion larger than last year.
From October 2025 through August 2026, federal receipts totaled $4.8 trillion, a 3% increase from a year ago. Ignoring timing shifts, outlays came to $6.8 trillion, a 4% increase.
Calling for Congress to act now to cut deficits, the deficit hawks at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget noted that the latest data comes as the nation’s fiscal outlook is already facing enormous challenges. “Such extraordinarily high deficits are just one piece of our fiscal situation that is falling apart,” CRFB’s Maya MacGuineas said in a statement. “The gross national debt recently hit the sobering milestone of $40 trillion; we’re now spending more on yearly interest costs than on our national defense; debt held by the public exceeds the size of our entire economy; and trust funds for programs that tens of millions of Americans rely on face insolvency in less than a decade.”