Government spending during the pandemic caused a $3.1 trillion deficit in 2020 and a $2.8 trillion deficit in 2021.
In 2022, the federal budget deficit dropped by the largest amount in history; from $2.8 trillion to a little less than $1 trillion.
Instead of continuing to drop, the deficit nearly doubled to a projected $2 trillion.
Yet the current surge in the deficit is coinciding with a period of unusually strong economic growth, amid historic lows in unemployment and robust corporate profits.
"The deficit will basically double from 2022 to 2023," said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Lower tax receipts and higher interest rates, forcing bigger interest payments, have resulted in the budget deficit skyrocketing.
From August 2022 to this July, the federal government spent roughly $6.7 trillion while bringing in roughly $4.5 trillion. That represents a total increase in spending of 16 percent relative to last year and a 7 percent decrease in revenue, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The deficit fell dramatically the year before in large part because of the expiration of trillions in emergency covid aid approved during the Trump and Biden administrations. But even as covid spending continued to fall this year, other factors pushed overall spending up.
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