U.S. budget deficit reaches $2.54 trillion so far during initial 10 months of the fiscal year

The nation's budget deficit has reached the eye-popping sum of $2.54 trillion for the initial 10 months of this budget year and remains on course to become the second biggest annual deficit in the country's history, dwarfed only by the prior fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the Associated Press reported.

"Still, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the deficit through July is 9.5% lower than the same period a year ago," the outlet noted.

The deficit for the 2020 budget year reached a whopping $3.1 trillion after the legislature approved trillions in funding for purposes such stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment benefits and aid to help small businesses, according to the AP.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that this year's deficit will be bit smaller at $3 trillion, and projects that for the following budget year which begins on Oct. 1 the deficit will decline to $1.2 trillion, according to the outlet.

But that estimate does not factor in the massive spending proposals currently under consideration in Congress, the AP noted, pointing to an approximately $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as a $3.5 trillion measure that is supported by Democrats.

The government has noted that revenues amounted to $3.32 trillion for the October through July span, the AP reported. The figure represents a 17.5% increase compared to that same timeframe a year back when scads of people were jobless and the nation was striving to exit the pandemic-related recession.

Spending for the initial 10 months of the budget year tallied a massive $5.86 trillion, a 4% increase compared to the same period a year back, the outlet reported.

While deficit hawks have long called for slashing government spending, the nation has routinely continued to overspend through the years.

When the current fiscal year concludes, the federal government will have run deficits for 20 consecutive years.

The last time that the federal government had a surplus was in fiscal year 2001.