Markets Are Sounding the Alarm on Deficits

The federal deficit doubled in fiscal year 2023, and the bond market is sounding the alarm about fiscal irresponsibility. But Washington isn’t listening.

The deficit for 2023, reported at $1.7 trillion by the Congressional Budget Office, was really about $2 trillion (or more than twice the $1 trillion recorded a year earlier). The reason for the $300 billion discrepancy lies in Washington accounting conventions. The government counted the Biden administration’s illegal and unconstitutional student-loan program as part of last year’s spending, and then counted the Supreme Court’s rescission of that program as though...