US federal deficit or surplus by president

The gap between what the federal government collected and what it spent in each fiscal year, from 1991 to 2025, shaded by the party of the president in office. Values below zero are deficits. The series runs from a $0.27T deficit in 1991 to a $1.77T deficit in 2025. The furthest any single year went from balance was a $3.10T deficit, in 2020.

4 fiscal years in this series ran a surplus: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001.

A surplus does not mean the debt fell. The 1998-2001 run of surpluses reduced debt held by the public, while gross federal debt — the series on federal debt by president, which also counts what the government owes itself through trust funds such as Social Security — kept rising: it went from $5.41T at the end of fiscal 1997 to $5.81T at the end of fiscal 2001. The two measures move differently, and this page charts neither of them directly.

This is the annual flow, not the accumulated stock. A deficit in any year adds to the debt, which is why the debt keeps climbing even in years when the deficit shrinks.

Fiscal years end on 30 September, so a year is not aligned to a presidential term, and the budget in force during a president's first months was set under their predecessor.

For a figure closer to daily life over the same span, see the price of eggs by president.

Source: US Office of Management and Budget, Federal Surplus or Deficit (FYFSD), retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.