U.S. Debt Surges to $40 Trillion as Government Spending Outpaces Tax Revenues
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America’s national debt cleared $40 trillion for the first time ever on Wednesday, a number so comically large as to feel imaginary. Seriously — look at it in all of its comma-strewn glory: $40,203,821,194,241. And because the US racks up tens of thousands of dollars of new debt every second, that number was outdated even as I typed it.
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Washington ExaminerEarlier this week, the Treasury Department announced the national debt had surpassed $40 trillion. Its chief, Bessent, said he believes the U.S. can grow its way out of the debt burden.
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President Trump reupped claims of widespread illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens with the help of an unusual Census Bureau report that appears to have ties to a think tank aligned with him, NPR has learned. Trump said that the bureau's initial analysis of more than 128 million voter records shows that over 24,000 noncitizens voted illegally in the 2020 presidential election. The seven-page unauthored report says it utilizes information from a 2020 commercial voter file and various federal administrative records. Data and election experts say the report's conclusions are questionable.
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Associated PressTrump’s Truth Social post on Tuesday referenced a report published by the U.S. Census Bureau that he said checked “Voter Records from 2020 against their Citizenship Records,” finding 24,000 noncitizens voted illegally in just its initial search. The report is described as a “beginning analysis.”
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How did the debt get so big? For years, the government has spent more money than it collects in taxes. Some of that has been driven by political choices — to wage war, cut taxes or provide a more generous social safety net during the pandemic. But much of the growth in spending happens automatically, as baby boomers age into retirement, resulting in higher costs for Social Security and Medicare.
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VoxOn some level, the steady ballooning of the national debt is basic math, familiar to anyone with a budget of their own. The government’s expenses — particularly the costs of Social Security and Medicare — are growing, while successive rounds of tax cuts have reduced the revenue available to cover them. As the government accumulates more debt, it also has to spend more just to cover the interest.
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Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.
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01 Washington Examiner Vice President JD Vance said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has a plan to address the nation’s roughly $40 trillion debt, arguing the administration can grow the economy faster than the debt accumulates.
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02 Fox News New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill criticized the Trump administration Wednesday while releasing findings from her investigation into thousands of ineligible voters improperly registered in the state.
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03 USA Today U.S. national debt tops $40 trillion as costs rise for Americans - USA Today U.S. national debt tops $40 trillion as costs rise for Americans USA Today
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04 Associated Press “This is the weakest methodology description I’ve ever seen in a Census Bureau publication,” said Mark Lindeman, policy and strategy director at Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group focused on election technology. “This document doesn’t tell us anything about elections. It just shows that the Census Bureau has gone off the rails.”
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05 Vox This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day. Subscribe here.
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06 HuffPost Joe Scarborough zoomed in on President Donald Trump when presented with a Treasury Department report that found the U.S. federal debt at a record-high $40 trillion.
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07 NPR News The Treasury Department reported this week that the U.S. federal debt had reached $40 trillion, an eye-popping level of red ink. Just the annual interest on that accumulated debt now tops a trillion dollars, making it the government's second-biggest expense, behind only Social Security.
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08 National Review America’s $40 Trillion Nightmare The nation’s finances hit a grim milestone.
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09 Democracy Now The U.S. Treasury reports the national debt has passed the $40 trillion mark — months earlier than previously expected, mostly due to lost revenue from President Trump’s tariffs. And there’s no sign of deficit spending ending anytime soon, as the Pentagon seeks tens of billions of additional dollars to pay for the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, and after the Trump administration in April asked Congress to boost war spending to $1.5 trillion. During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump pledged to “completely eliminate” what was then a $19 trillion debt within eight years.
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- huffpost
- ap
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- nationalreview
- usatoday
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- vox