As another showdown over raising the nation’s debt limit looms, the U.S. budget deficit in August reached $170.6 billion, widening the total deficit in the first 11 months of the 2021 fiscal year to $2.711 trillion.
The deficit was 14.7% lower than the budget gap a year ago, which was at $200 billion as revenues increased by 20.2% and outlays rose by only 3.7% year-over-year, according to the Treasury Department.
Still, it marked 23 straight months that government spending had outstripped its revenues because of the pandemic and multiple rounds of government stimulus.
Now, with the House poised to vote on raising the nation’s debt limit this week, the growth of the deficit is expected to become an increasingly fraught topic.
Lawmakers are facing increasing pressure to resolve the issue. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said that the nation’s “cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of October,” if the debt ceiling is not raised.
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