The United States recorded a US$1.992 trillion federal deficit in fiscal 2026, up twelve per cent from the previous year. VnExpress reported the October 16 Treasury announcement on October 17.
The fiscal year ended on September 30, so the figure does not represent the January-to-December calendar year.
Record revenue and spending
The report describes the deficit as the largest in five years and third largest historically, behind the pandemic-era totals in 2020 and 2021. A Treasury official said both revenue and expenditure reached records.
It was the twenty-fifth consecutive fiscal deficit, with the last surplus recorded in 2001. September alone produced a US$27 billion shortfall, compared with a US$198 billion surplus a year earlier.
Individual income taxes generated more than US$2.8 trillion, approximately seven per cent higher. Corporate income taxes fell to US$381 billion, down around US$70 billion following earlier tax reductions.
Debt-service pressure
Social Security accounted for nearly US$1.7 trillion and Medicare almost US$1.1 trillion. Both increased from the previous fiscal year.
Net interest costs exceeded US$1 trillion. The report distinguishes that measure, which subtracts interest received, from gross interest payments above US$1.3 trillion.
Federal debt surpassed US$40 trillion earlier in the year, according to the source. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously argued that growth can help address the debt burden.
The report also notes customs-duty repayments following a Supreme Court ruling. Those revenue and spending pressures form the background to the completed fiscal year's near-two-trillion-dollar shortfall.