The Feds Borrow More Than The "Deficit"

People naturally assume that the annual Deficit is the total that the Federal government borrows each year. Actually this is not so. The Deficit is simply the difference between Federal Outlays and Federal Receipts. Usually, the Feds borrow a lot more than the official Deficit.

Like below, in $ billion:

Year	Gross Debt	Debt Increase	Federal Deficit	Other Borrow
2000	5629	24	-236	259
2005	7905	551	318	232
2010	13529	1653	1294	359
2011	14764	1235	1300	-64
2012	16051	1287	1087	200
2013	16719	669	680	-11
2014	17795	1075	485	590
2015	18120	326	438	-113
2016	19540	1420	585	835
2017	20206	666	666	0
2018	21462	1156	779	478
2019	22668	1206	984	221

We have provided the difference between the Debt increase and the Deficit for each year under "Other Borrowing" on the Spending Details page. There are two items:

"Borrowings from Govt. Accounts" = Increase in Debt held by government, also known as "Federal Securities Held as Investments of Government Accounts" in Table 6, Schedule D of the Monthly Treasury Statement.

"Other Liability Increase" = (Increase in Total Federal Securities) - (Official Deficit) - (Borrowings from Govt. Accounts)

Other Borrowing = (Increase in Federal Debt) - (Official Deficit)

But what does it mean?

"Borrowings from Govt. Accounts" means everything from spare cash in some federal agency to excess monies contributed to various Trust Funds from Social Security to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund.

"Other Liability Increase"  is everything else on the Federal balance sheet, from changes in operating cash in the Treasury's Federal Reserve Account to IMF transactions. See Table 6 in the Monthly Treasury Statement.

Note that these numbers do not include the unfunded liabilities of the federal government's entitlement programs.

Updated 12/18/2019.