The United States is on course to borrow more than £1.57 trillion ($2 trillion) in a single fiscal year, and those responsible for managing it arerunning out of polite language. New figures released by the US Treasury on 7 May 2026, in itsquarterly refunding presentation to the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC), show the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now projects the current fiscal year deficit at £1.62 trillion ($2.06 trillion).

That is more than £130 billion ($166 billion) in new debt every month. The projection is higher than theCongressional Budget Office's February estimateof £1.49 trillion ($1.9 trillion), drawing an urgent response from economists and geopolitical strategists who see in the figures something far larger than a fiscal problem.

The scale of this year's borrowing is not merely large in absolute terms. By Washington's own emerging standard, it is roughly twice what it should be.

A bipartisan coalition of policymakers has coalesced around a 3% deficit-to-GDP target as a benchmark for fiscal responsibility. The current OMB deficit projection of £1.62 trillion ($2.06 trillion) represents more than 6% of GDP, a figure Maya MacGuineas, president of theCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget, called 'beyond scary.'

2 TRILLION FUCKING DOLLARS.DON'T EVER SAY REPUBLICANS ARE BETTER FOR THE ECONOMY OR CARE ABOUT DEBT.pic.twitter.com/EMqGc9im5y

'$2 trillion deficits used to be unheard of, and then they only occurred during major recessions,' MacGuineas said. 'Markets will only tolerate our unsustainable borrowing for so long; the risk of a fiscal crisis gets higher as the days pass. We need deficit reduction urgently.' She added that the OMB figure demonstrated 'just how far we have to go,' noting that reaching the 3% target by 2036 would require roughly £7.87 trillion ($10 trillion) in deficit reduction over the next decade.

The fiscal year ends on 30 September 2026. From October, the situation is projected to worsen: the OMB puts the FY2027 deficit at £1.70 trillion ($2.17 trillion), or about £142 billion ($181 billion) per month. The national debt, at £30.6 trillion ($38.91 trillion) according tolive Treasury data, is approaching £30.7 trillion ($39 trillion). It has not been below 100% of GDP since 2025.

The cost of carrying that debt is, on its own, reshaping how the federal government spends money. TheCBO's Budget and Economic Outlookprojects net interest payments at £786 billion ($1.0 trillion) for fiscal year 2026, a 7% increase on the year before and a new all-time high in dollar terms. CBO Director Phillip Swagel confirmed in hisdirector's statementthat 'net outlays for interest go from $1.0 trillion in 2026 to $2.1 trillion in 2036' and that 'the fiscal trajectory is not sustainable.'

In the first six months of the current fiscal year alone, October 2025 to March 2026, the Treasury paid out nearly £416 billion ($530 billion) in interest charges. That translates to more than £69 billion ($88 billion) a month, or more than £17 billion ($22 billion) every week.

According topreliminary CBO estimates, those service payments are running roughly equal to the combined spend on both theDepartment of Defenceand the Department of Education for the same period.

Source: International Business Times UK