Fiscal Year 2023 Deficit Picture
On October 10, 2023, the Congressional Budget Office released the final tally of the government’s spending, revenues, and deficit for fiscal year 2023, which ended on September 30, 2023.
CBO’s official report shows that deficits are significantly higher and growing.
The only way to put the budget on a sustainable fiscal path is to control the growth of spending.
FY 2023 Official Results
- Outlays: $6.1 trillion
- Revenues: $4.4 trillion
- Deficit: $1.7 trillion
- National Debt: $2 trillion higher
Worse than Projected
Compared to CBO’s FY23 projections when Biden assumed office:
- Outlays: $966 billion higher
- Revenues: $239 billion higher
- Deficit: $727 billion higher
FY 2023 vs FY 2022
- Compared to FY 2022, in 2023:
- Deficit: 23% higher
- Outlays: 2% lower
- Revenues: 9% lower
- The outlay reduction reflects the SCOTUS ruling on student loans and the expiration of COVID and ARPA programs.
- Programs in the budget driving the long term fiscal imbalance all increased spending significantly in FY 2023, up from FY 2022.
- Interest payments on the debt increased 33%, Medicare 18%, Social Security 11%, and Medicaid 4%.
Impact of Student Loans
- Excluding one-time accounting of the Supreme Court blocking Biden’s student loan cancellation:
- Outlays: $6.5 trillion
- Deficit: $2 trillion
- Taxpayer-financed subsidy costs of Biden’s loan cancellation were booked as higher government spending in FY 2022.
- After SCOTUS struck down Biden’s plan, $333 billion in lower government subsidy costs were accounted for in August 2023, reversing the deficit impacts of the proposal from the prior year.
