evidence: - Outlays were $3.1 trillion, an increase of 12%, largely due to:* - $132 billion (11%) increase in the largest mandatory spending programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, reflecting increases in both the cost of benefits and number of beneficiaries. [...] The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government ran a deficit of $198 billion in August, the eleventh month of fiscal year 2020. This deficit—the difference between $223 billion of revenues and $420 billion of outlays—is $3 billion less than last August’s, although this apparent improvement is an illusion created by shifts in the timing of certain payments. Without these timing shifts, this August’s deficit would have been $106 billion (or 72%) greater than last August’s. The cumulative deficit in FY2020 has risen to $3.0 trillion, an increase of $1.9 trillion from this point last year. [...] CBO now projects that the total deficit this fiscal year will run to $3.3 trillion, more than triple last year’s and the largest deficit as a share of the economy since 1945.