The budget deficit for 2020 will be a historic 3.3 Trillion dollars. This is caused by the massive amount of spending the government has done, and less taxes it is collecting. The government loves to spend money, even in normal years. This year, because of the virus and the recession, their spending has only been exacerbated. Not only did they spend more, they also collected less in taxes. Many people stopped working, so the government did not receive all those taxes associated with working. The 2017 tax cut also, for the last 3 years, have decreased the total amount of taxes coming in. These two things together exploded the deficit to new levels. We are in the middle of a pandemic and a recession, so it is easy to justify this spending, especially if it is going to a good use. But in the long run all this government spending will lead to crowding out of private investment, lowering out net exports even more, and hampering growth. There is this trade off we have to deal with, and finding that balance is a point of contention.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/02/budget-deficit-to-hit-record-3point3-trillion-due-to-virus-recession.html
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