What is the current U.S. deficit?

The U.S. government's budget deficit for fiscal year 2015 is $439 billion. The budget deficit for 2015 brings the total debt of the federal government to $18.2 trillion. Any year in which the government operates at a deficit increases the government's total outstanding debt.

In fiscal year 2015, the U.S. government's budget includes $3.69 trillion in expenditures and $3.25 trillion in receipts, resulting in a $439 billion deficit.

In fiscal year 2014, the deficit was $483 billion. Thus, between 2014 and 2015, the budget deficit shrank by nearly 10 percent.

Both the 2014 and 2015 federal budget deficits were below the average of the deficits the government run for the last 40 years.