Executive Summary to the Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Report of U.S. Government

Results in Brief

The “Nation by the Numbers” table on the preceding page and the following summarize key metrics about the federal government’s financial position for and during FY 2024:

The budget deficit increased by $137.6 billion (8.1 percent) to $1.8 trillion and net operating cost decreased by $992.2 billion (29.0 percent) to $2.4 trillion. The primary contributor to the difference between the deficit and net operating cost is an increase in the liability for federal employee and veteran benefits payable that affects the government’s current year costs but does not affect the current year budget deficit.
The government’s gross costs of $7.8 trillion, less $652.9 billion in revenues earned for goods and services provided to the public, plus $283.6 billion in net losses from changes in assumptions yields the government’s net cost of $7.4 trillion, a decrease of $479.9 billion (6.1 percent) from FY 2023.
Net cost decreased but is subject to both cost increases and decreases across the government. For example, the largest decrease was due to significant decreases in losses stemming from changes in assumptions affecting cost and liability estimates for the government’s employee and veteran benefits. The largest increase was to interest on the federal debt.
Tax and other revenues increased by $512.3 billion to $5.0 trillion. Deducting these revenues from net cost yields the federal government’s “bottom line” net operating cost of $2.4 trillion referenced above.
Comparing total government assets of $5.7 trillion (including $1.8 trillion of loans receivable, net and $1.3 trillion of Property, Plant, and Equipment (PP&E)) to total liabilities of $45.5 trillion (including $28.3 trillion in federal debt and interest payable, and $15.0 trillion of federal employee and veteran benefits payable) yields a negative net position of $39.9 trillion.
The Statement of Long-Term Fiscal Projections (SLTFP) shows that the present value (PV) of total non-interest spending, over the next 75 years, under current policy, is projected to exceed the PV of total receipts by $72.7 trillion (total federal non-interest net expenditures from the table on the previous page).
The debt-to-GDP ratio was approximately 98 percent at the end of FY 2024. Under current policy and based on this report’s assumptions, it is projected to reach 535 percent by 2099. The projected continuous rise of the debt-to-GDP ratio indicates that current policy is unsustainable.
The Statement of Social Insurance (SOSI) shows that the PV of the government’s expenditures for Social Security and Medicare Parts A, B and D, and other social insurance programs over 75 years is projected to exceed social insurance revenues by about $78.3 trillion, remaining largely unchanged, decreasing by approximately $100.0 billion compared to 2023 social insurance projections.

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Last modified 02/21/25