(The Center Square) – The United States government passed a sobering milestone Wednesday as the national debt topped $40 trillion, up from $39 trillion only five months ago.
Government spending watchdogs are calling the amount “staggering,” noting that the debt has doubled over the past decade alone and is now larger than the entire U.S. economy.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warned that “$40 trillion of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another.”
“The more we borrow, the more we exacerbate inflation, squeeze out other priorities in the budget, and leave ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad,” she added.
In the immediate term, rising debt worsens affordability by spiking interest costs on Americans’ credit card debts, mortgages, car loans, student loans and more.
In the long term, it can jeopardize U.S. national security. The U.S. government currently spends more paying interest on its national debt than it does on national defense.
Carolyn Bourdeaux, executive director at Concord Action, said the $40 trillion debt “should stop Washington in its tracks” and amounts to “intergenerational theft.”
“Young Americans did not create this debt: they did not benefit from the tax cuts; they did not enjoy the generous payouts or programs; they did not support the wars or foreign interventions that have cost us trillions,” Bordeaux said.
“But they will be expected to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives through higher borrowing costs, more pressure from inflation, fewer resources available for education, housing, infrastructure, defense and other priorities, and quite likely higher taxes as this country is forced to address the ballooning debt.”
Aside from some Republican lawmakers acknowledging the problem – U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, called the debt “an existential threat to the future of our nation” – Congress has largely disregarded it.
Congress sidestepped the automatic spending cuts to Medicare and other programs that are triggered by unpaid-for federal borrowing by wiping $3.4 trillion from the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) scorecard last November.
In March, the House tanked a balanced budget resolution. The resolution would have capped federal spending each year at the average annual revenue of the previous three years, with exceptions for emergencies.
U.S. lawmakers have introduced balanced budget proposals hundreds of times over the past 50 years and over 100 times since 1999 alone. Only twice in American history has any balanced budget proposal passed either chamber of Congress; the Senate in 1982 and the House in 1995.
“Every day that goes by makes the problem worse and more difficult to solve,” Bordeaux warned. “We owe the next generation better than this crushing debt and another hollow promise that someone else will deal with it later. Both parties helped bring us here, and both parties now have a responsibility to change course.”
The U.S. government is currently adding more than $90,000 per second to the national debt, according to the most recent estimates by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. Deficit spending in fiscal year 2026 is projected to hit $2 trillion.
“Whatever motivation our elected officials need to find to finally take action – whether the worries of their constituents back home, the alarm signaled by financial markets, competition from abroad, or the consequences of failing to act – they ought to find it soon,” MacGuineas added. “No one knows how many more of these milestones America can take.”