The U.S. Government Is Spending Way More Than It’s Making

The federal government ran a $345 billion deficit for the month of August, according to a monthly report from the U.S. Treasury Thursday.

The figure exceeded expectations, as economists had forecast a shortfall of about $300 billion, according to CNBC. In reality, the government spent $689 billion while taking in $344 billion, including $30 billion from tariffs: a monthly record that still was woefully inadequate to close up the budget gap, as August saw the third-largest deficit on record this year.

In the fiscal year thus far, the U.S. has racked up a deficit of $1.973 trillion. That figure is $76 billion higher than it was at the same time last year, and, according to Bloomberg, is surpassed only by the years 2020 and 2021, when the U.S. was “spending extraordinary amounts to cope with the Covid crisis.”