$3.1 trillion deficit

In its Monthly Budget Review for September 2020, CBO reported that the federal government ran a $3.1 trillion deficit for the fiscal year ended September 30. Or as Sri Thiruvadanthai, Research Director at the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, calls it: "the people's surplus for promoting freedom and defeating Communism." Someone's deficit is always someone else's surplus: federal deficits are supporting household and business balance sheets.

The Treasury Department will publish the official number later this month.