The budget deficit is projected to swell to $1 trillion in 2020. That's 2 years faster than previously thought.

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(Image credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

The federal budget deficit is not slowing down.

Following the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, the Congressional Budget Office updated its forecasts on Wednesday, with predictions that the deficit will reach $960 billion for the 2019 fiscal year, which concludes on Sept. 30. That number is expected to swell to $1 trillion for the 2020 fiscal year, the first time the deficit could cross that threshold since the 2012 fiscal year.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.