10.08.24

CBO Estimate: 2024 Deficit Reaches $1.8 Trillion under Biden-Harris Spending

WASHINGTON – The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today estimated the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 deficit was $1.8 trillion, double what the agency projected when the Biden-Harris administration took office. Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued the following statement on the need to reverse course.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris have ignored resounding messages from Iowans and Americans nationwide, as well as alarms from global credit ratings companies. By consistently choosing a spendthrift agenda over fiscal sanity, this administration has hamstrung our economy for generations to come,” Grassley said. “Our nation needs a change of pace from the one this administration has set. Vice President Harris’ recent proposals, however, signal an unwillingness to meaningfully address Americans’ concerns and a readiness to double down on policies that have caused major consequences, like prices rising over 20 percent in less than four years.”

Per CBO’s report, in FY 2024:

  • The deficit totaled $1.8 trillion, up $139 billion from FY 2023 and double what CBO estimated when the Biden-Harris administration took office.
  • Spending increased $617 billion (10 percent) from FY 2023, driven in part by costly executive actions and soaring interest payments.
  • Net interest payments on the national debt totaled $950 billion, up $240 billion (34 percent) from FY 2023.  

Background on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Irresponsible Economic Record:

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the U.S. credit outlook last year, citing the deficit as a key factor in its decision. Independent experts, such as the Federal Reserve Chairman and CBO Director, have warned that our nation is on an “unsustainable fiscal path.” Even so, the Biden-Harris administration plowed full steam ahead with trillion-dollar student loan bailout schemes and a $21 billion Medicare cost-shifting plan – an attempt to cover up negative effects the so-called Inflation “Reduction” Act is having on seniors, including hiking premiums and reducing plan options.

Further, high borrowing costs and mounting federal debt have increased spending on net interest payments, which now exceed discretionary outlays for national defense. In early 2021, when interest rates sat at a record low, White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young claimed it would be a “historic missed opportunity” to forego borrowing trillions of dollars. Grassley last week called out OMB for neglecting to provide CBO with enough information to fully analyze the fiscal impacts of the Biden-Harris administration’s 2025 budget, despite committing to doing so.

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