预算赤字与经济健康之间存在关系，但肯定不是一个完美的关系。当经济表现良好时，可能存在巨额预算赤字，虽然可能性较小，但在经济困难时期，盈余肯定是可能的。这是因为赤字或盈余不仅取决于所收集的税收（可以被认为与经济活动成比例），还取决于政府采购和转移支付的水平，这是由国会决定的，不需要由经济活动的水平。话虽如此，随着经济的恶化，政府预算往往会从盈余转为赤字（或现有赤字变大）。这通常发生在以下情况：经济陷入衰退，使许多工人失去工作，同时导致企业利润下降。这导致较少的所得税收入流入政府，同时减少企业所得税收入。有时，政府的收入流量仍将增长，但速度低于通货膨胀率，这意味着税收流量实际上已经下降。由于许多工人失去了工作，他们的依赖性增加了政府计划的使用，例如失业保险。政府支出越来越多，因为越来越多的人呼吁政府服务，以帮助他们渡过难关。 （这种支出计划被称为自动稳定器，因为它们本质上有助于稳定经济活动和收入。）为帮助经济摆脱衰退并帮助失业者，政府经常创建新的社会计划在经济衰退和萧条期间。罗斯福在20世纪30年代的“新政”就是一个很好的例子。然后政府支出增加，不仅仅是因为现有计划的使用增加，而是通过创建新计划。由于第一因素，政府因经济衰退而从纳税人那里获得的资金减少，而第二和第三因素则意味着政府花费的资金超过了更好的时期。资金开始流出政府的速度超过了它，导致政府的预算陷入赤字。
美国芝加哥大学经济学Assignment代写：经济衰退期间预算赤字如何增长
There is a relationship between budget deficits and the health of the economy, but is certainly not a perfect one. There can be massive budget deficits when the economy is doing quite well, and, though somewhat less likely, surpluses are certainly possible during bad times. This is because a deficit or surplus depends not only on the tax revenues collected (which can be thought of as proportional to economic activity) but also on the level of government purchases and transfer payments, which is determined by Congress and need not be determined by the level of economic activity. That being said, government budgets tend to go from surplus to deficit (or existing deficits become larger) as the economy goes sour. This typically happens as follows: The economy goes into recession, costing many workers their jobs, and at the same time causing corporate profits to decline. This causes less income tax revenue to flow to the government, along with less corporate income tax revenue. Occasionally the flow of income to the government will still grow, but at a slower rate than inflation, meaning that flow of tax revenue has fallen in real terms. Because many workers have lost their jobs, their dependency is increased use of government programs, such as unemployment insurance. Government spending rises as more individuals are calling on government services to help them out through tough times. (Such spending programs are known as automatic stabilizers, since they by their very nature help stabilize economic activity and income over time.) To help push the economy out of recession and to help those who have lost their jobs, governments often create new social programs during times of recession and depression. FDR’s “New Deal” of the 1930s is a prime example of this. Government spending then rises, not just because of increased use of existing programs, but through the creation of new programs. Because of factor one, the government receives less money from taxpayers due to a recession, while factors two and three imply that the government spends more money than it would during better times. Money starts flowing out of the government faster than it comes in, causing the government’s budget to go into deficit.