Federal budget deficit reached whopping $1.7 trillion for fiscal year 2023: Watchdog

The U.S. government’s budget deficit finished at a whopping $1.7 trillion for the 2023 fiscal year that ended last month, according to a Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget analysis released Tuesday. 

The monthly deficit was $166 billion in September alone as Congress debates an appropriations bill for 2024 before the Nov. 17 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. 

"After declining in recent years due to the pandemic ending, the deficit is now back on the rise, totaling $1.7 trillion in 2023 and more than double last year’s when you exclude the President’s now-overturned student debt cancellation and timing shifts," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

"With deficits doubling, interest rates surging, major trust funds on course to be exhausted in a decade, and new security threats emerging – everything is telling us it’s time to address the debt," she added.

The national debt is currently at a record $33.5 trillion, according to the latest U.S. Treasury data.