U.S. Budget Deficit Reaches Highest Level in History During Biden’s Presidency

elkhabariya newspaper August 18, 2024

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FILE - President Joe Biden speaks on April 12, 2024, in Washington. New Jersey Democrats and Republicans decide their parties’ standard-bearers for the Senate amid the federal corruption trial in New York of New Jersey Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Menendez, along with candidates for the presidency and House. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Data from the U.S. Treasury Department reveals that the budget deficit during Joe Biden’s presidency has reached $6.6 trillion, marking the highest deficit recorded in the nation’s history.

According to the department, the deficit was $2.8 trillion in 2021, accounting for 13% of the GDP. This figure decreased in 2022 to $1.4 trillion, roughly 6.3% of GDP. However, the deficit rose again in 2023 to $1.7 trillion, equivalent to 7.6% of the GDP.

In the first half of the current year, the Treasury report indicated that the deficit stood at $758.2 billion, representing 5.5% of GDP on an annual basis.

During the presidency of former President Donald Trump, the total budget deficit reached $5.6 trillion, including the highest deficit ever recorded at $3.1 trillion (15.5% of GDP) in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Barack Obama is noted as the only president in the past century to have reduced the deficit to $2.2 trillion, having inherited a $5.1 trillion deficit from George W. Bush. It is worth mentioning that Bush was the last president to record an annual budget surplus in the U.S., amounting to $130 billion in 2001.

The United States finances this significant deficit by increasing the national debt, which surpassed $35 trillion in July 2024.

Source: Novosti