Federal Budget: Government Adds $662B of Debt in Three Months

Federal Budget

The Federal Government publishes the spending and revenue numbers on a monthly basis. The charts and tables below give an in-depth review of the Federal Budget, showing where the money is coming from, where it is going to, and the surplus or deficit.

This month saw a $244B deficit, which followed 2 months of large deficits. This brought the three-month total to a whopping $662B.

Figure: 1 Monthly Federal Budget

This was also the second largest July ever, only behind July 2021 shortly after Biden came into office to bring in new stimulus spending.

Figure: 2 Historical Deficit/Surplus for July

On average, July experiences a deficit of -$147B which makes this year almost 65% larger than typical July deficits!

Figure: 3 Current vs Historical

The two Sankey diagrams below show the distribution of spending and revenue for the month and the trailing twelve months. As shown, the deficit this month represented 42.5% of total spending!

Figure: 4 Monthly Federal Budget Sankey

TTM Deficit was $1.6B which is a massive issue going forward. The government cannot afford to keep printing such massive deficit figures.

Figure: 5 TTM Federal Budget Sankey

The next two charts show the monthly revenue and costs broken down by expense type.

Figure: 6 Monthly Receipts

The chart below shows how expenses are spread across lots of services and have reached a new equilibrium way above sustainable levels.

Figure: 7 Monthly Outlays

Interest Expense has ballooned higher to $861B.

Figure: 8 TTM Interest Expense

The table below goes deeper into the numbers of each category.

Figure: 9 US Budget Detail

Historical Perspective

Zooming out and looking over the history of the budget back to 1980 shows a complete picture. The change since COVID-19 is quite dramatic.

Figure: 10 Trailing 12 Months (TTM)

The next two charts zoom in on the recent periods to show the change when compared to pre-Covid. These charts show spending and revenue on a trailing 12-month basis period over period.

Figure: 11 Annual Federal Receipts

Figure: 12 Annual Federal Expenses

Data Source: Monthly Treasury Statement

Data Updated: Monthly on eighth business day

Last Updated: Period ending Jul 2024

US Debt interactive charts and graphs can always be found on the Exploring Finance dashboard: https://exploringfinance.shinyapps.io/USDebt/