The federal budget deficit is projected to total $2.3 trillion in the 2021 fiscal year, a drop from last year but still well ahead of anything the U.S. had seen prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office reported Thursday. That total does not include the $1.9 trillion in relief spending that President Joe Biden has proposed as the ultimate size of the package has not been determined yet. While smaller than the $3.13 shortfall in fiscal 2020, the red ink this year still will be the second-largest in the nation’s history either in total dollar terms or as a proportion of the $20.9 trillion U.S. ... (full story)