What is the Deficit?

Deficit: The amount by which the government's total budget outlays exceeds its total receipts for a fiscal year. —US Senate Budget Committee

Or, approximately, the federal deficit is the amount by which the federal debt increases in a single year. See Federal Debt.

Debts and Deficits

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Debt/Deficit
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Recent US Federal Deficit Numbers

Obama Deficits	Bush Deficits
FY 2014*: $744 billion	FY 2009†: $1,413 billion
FY 2013*: $973 billion	FY 2008: $458 billion
FY 2012: $1,087 billion	FY 2007: $161 billion
FY 2011: $1,300 billion	for more years click here.
FY 2010: $1,294 billion

Although the federal deficit is the amount each year by which federal outlays in the federal budget exceed federal receipts, the gross federal debt increases each year by substantially more than the amount of the deficit each year. That is because a substantial amount of federal borrowing is not counted in the budget. See here.

Note:

* Federal Deficit is budgeted.
† Some people have emailed to insist that the FY 2009 deficit should be assigned to Obama. Sorta.

Deficit Charts also: Spending Charts Revenue Charts Debt Charts

Federal

Recent US Federal Deficits

in billions

Click chart for briefing on Federal Deficit.
For numbers and more click here.

in Percent GDP

Click chart for briefing on Federal Deficit.
For numbers and more click here.

The two charts show above show recent and budgeted deficits for the US federal government. On the left is a chart of the deficit in current dollars. On the right is a chart of the deficit as a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

US Federal Deficits in the 20th Century

Click chart for briefing on Federal Deficit.
For numbers from 1900-2018 click here.

The two major peaks of the federal deficit in the 20th century occurred during World War I and World War II. Deficits increased steadily from the 1960s through the early 1990s, and then declined rapidly for the remainder of the 1990s. The federal deficit went over 10 percent of GDP in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008.

US Federal Deficits since the Founding

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For numbers from 1792-2018 click here.

The United States government did not always run a deficit. In the 19th century the federal government typically only ran deficits during wartime or during financial crises. The government ran a deficit of 2 percent of GDP at the end of the war of 1812, and through the decade after the Panic of 1837 and culminating in the US - Mexican War of 1846-48. It ran a deficit of over 7 percent of GDP in the Civil War; and ran a deficit in the depressed 1890s.
In the 20th century the US ran a defict during World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and in almost all years since 1960, during peace and war.

There’s much, much more:

Create CHARTS of government spending history here.
Look at TABLES of spending breakdown year-by-year for federal, state, and local here.
DOWNLOAD data for a single year here.
Take a TOUR of the website here.

What is the spending data; where is it from?

Federal spending data begins in 1792.
State and local spending data begins in 1902.
Spending data is from official government sources.
Federal data since 1962 comes from the president’s budget.
All other spending data comes from the US Census Bureau.
Gross Domestic Product data comes from measuringworth.com.

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Data Sources for 2008_2018:

Sources for 2008:

GDP: Measuring Worth - US GDP
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2 and 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances

Sources for 2018:

GDP: Fed. Budget: Hist. Table 10.1
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2 and 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
“Guesstimated” by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years

> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.

Medicare and Social Security Details

On May 10, 2013, usgovernmentspending.com was updated to provide details of Social Security -- OASI and DI numbers -- and Medicare -- broken down by Part A, Part B, and Part D.

Go here to get details of the Social Security changes on usgovernmentspending.com.

Go here to get details of the Medicare changes on usgovernmentspending.com