US Hits $316B May Deficit—Third-Largest Monthly Shortfall in History
The ink is still wet on Washington's ledger—and the numbers aren't pretty.
Red ink tsunami
May's $316 billion budget gap just bulldozed its way into the history books as the third-worst monthly deficit ever recorded. Treasury printers didn't even pause for coffee breaks.
Debt spiral continues
While politicians debate fiscal responsibility, the numbers scream their own truth. Another month, another nine zeros tacked onto the national credit card—because who needs balance sheets when you've got quantitative easing?
Funny how these 'emergency' deficits keep becoming business as usual. Maybe we'll discover fiscal restraint right after we find those mythical inflation-fighting unicorns.
Budget pressures persist as Trump’s tariff move fuels yield
On the surface, the U.S. isn’t facing a revenue problem. Tax receipts ROSE 15% in May, and they’re 6% higher than they were a year ago. But spending went up too, by 2% on the month, and 8% on the year. Even tariffs helped: the government collected $23 billion from customs duties in May, jumping from just $6 billion a year earlier.
Over the year, tariffs have pulled in $86 billion, a 59% increase. Still not enough.
One reason things are tight is because yields are still high. After sliding last summer, they began rising again, even with the Federal Reserve cutting rates. Then came President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement on April 2, which pushed yields higher again. The 10-year Treasury yield now sits at about 4.4%, nearly flat from last year but still painfully high when you’re borrowing trillions.
Warnings are also coming from Wall Street. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Larry Fink, who runs BlackRock, and RAY Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, have all raised concerns in recent weeks about the risks of piling debt. The deficit now makes up more than 6% of U.S. GDP, a figure almost never seen outside of wartime.
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