fiscal2026

🇺🇸 BREAKING: The US took in a record $5.4 trillion in fiscal 2026 and still ran a $1.99 trillion deficit, the widest gap since 2021.
Treasury data released Friday shows spending hit a record $7.4 trillion, up 6% year-over-year, while revenue grew just 3%, widening the deficit by $217 billion from fiscal 2025's $1.78 trillion. The gap now stands at 6.2% of GDP, up from 5.8% the year before, and marks the seventh straight year of trillion-dollar-plus deficits.
Interest on the debt alone hit a record $1.36 trillion, up 12% in a single year, now exceeding both defense spending ($965 billion) and Medicaid outlays. That works out to over $3.7 billion a day just to service debt the government already owes, no new borrowing required.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed to a mix of factors behind the widening gap, including a Supreme Court ruling that forced $145 billion in tariff refunds, cutting net tariff revenue by 11%, alongside higher interest rates and costs tied to the nine-month-old conflict in Iran.
Total US debt has already passed $40 trillion, a threshold crossed back in August, and now sits even higher near $40.3 trillion. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned just this week that economic growth alone won't be enough to solve the problem, a direct pushback against Bessent's own framing that the US can simply grow its way out of the debt.
#USDebt #Deficit #Economy #Treasury #Fiscal2026