US deficit expected to be third-worst in history at $1.7 trillion this year

Expenditures would have been about $200 billion higher if the Supreme Court had not struck down the planned cancellation of student loan debt.

By Madeleine Hubbard

Published: August 9, 2023 1:45pm

The total U.S. deficit for fiscal year 2023 is expected to be $1.7 trillion, the third-worst in the nation's history, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

The agency had predicted in May that the deficit for the 2023 fiscal year, which runs from October 2022 through September 2023, would be $1.5 trillion, but it altered its projections in a report published Tuesday.

Expenditures would have been about $200 billion higher if the Supreme Court had not struck down the planned cancellation of student loan debt, the report stated. This, however, will be partially offset by the new income-driven student loan repayment plan.

The size of the new predicted fiscal year deficit is only beaten by that of 2020 and 2021. The deficit was more than $3.1 trillion in 2020 as the country battled the COVID-19 pandemic, and the deficit was more than $2.7 trillion the following year as the U.S. recovered from the pandemic, per the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.

Since 2020, the national debt has grown from $26.94 trillion to $32.68 trillion.

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