Driven by unprecedented spending in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal budget deficit rose to a record $1.7 trillion in the first six months of the 2021 fiscal year, the Treasury Department announced Monday.
The deficit numbers for the first half of the fiscal year – covering October 2020 to March 2021 – were roughly $1 trillion higher this year than during the same period the year before. In March alone, the deficit came to nearly $660 billion, driven in large part by $339 billion in pandemic-relief payments to individuals.
This chart from the Treasury’s monthly report shows the surge in outlays that begins in April of 2020, the first full month of federal spending authorized by the $2.2 trillion Cares Act, with another noticeable spike in March 2021 following the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.
