Fiscal year 2026 ended last week, and while official figures aren't out yet, it looks like the federal government spent $2 trillion more than it took in. That's not quite a record—in dollar terms, the federal government ran a bigger deficit in 2020 when the feds showered money on the country in hopes of offsetting COVID-19 lockdowns (fueling inflation in the process), and the deficit was a bigger share of GDP both that year and during the Great Recession. But given the federal government hasn't balanced its books in 25 years, a $2 trillion deficit adds to already staggering national debt and looming disaster.
