An Explanation of Debt Day

Debt Day is an illustration of the size of government spending relative to the revenue the government receives and is calculated by taking the ratio of the federal revenues to the federal outlays projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) [1] and applying it to the 365 days of the fiscal year. For 2009, Debt Day currently falls on April 26th.

Debt Day illustrates the day during the federal fiscal year on which government spending exceeds revenue for that year.[2] The earlier in the year Debt Day falls on the calendar, the more deficit spending the government will rack up – adding even more debt to be paid by our children and grandchildren.

Just as families have to budget income (from a job or Social Security, for example) against expenses (like rent or mortgage payments, food and health care), if expenses exceed income debt will be incurred. It works in a similar way for the government. Except instead of income from a job, the government gets most of its revenue from taxes. And instead of spending for housing, food and other necessities, the government spends its money on a wide variety of functions and services.

This year the government is on pace to shatter all previous debt level records; moving Debt Day from August 5 last year to April 26 this year. This is in large part due to the Democrat trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending bill, the more than $400 billion “omnibus” spending bill loaded with some 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks, and another $350 billion in bailout funds Democrats have green-lighted since the beginning of the year.

By contrast, in every fiscal year post-9/11 Debt Day has fallen at least three months after when Debt Day will fall this year. The charts below show when Debt Day has fallen each fiscal year beginning in FY1998 and how many days the federal government survived on credit during the year.

Data compiled by Joint Economic Committee House Republican staff