WASHINGTON — The U.S. government’s gross national debt has climbed to an unprecedented $37 trillion, according to new Treasury Department figures released Tuesday, underscoring the rapid acceleration of federal borrowing and the mounting cost pressures facing taxpayers.
The milestone arrives years ahead of earlier projections. In January 2020, the Congressional Budget Office forecasted the nation’s debt would not surpass $37 trillion until after fiscal year 2030. But the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic — which shut down large parts of the economy in 2020 — prompted massive federal borrowing under then-President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden to stabilize markets and support recovery efforts.
That trajectory has continued, fueled in part by additional government spending. Earlier this year, Trump signed into law a Republican-backed tax cut and spending package expected to add $4.1 trillion to the debt over the next decade, according to the CBO.
Michael Peterson, chair and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, warned that surging debt drives up interest rates, which “adds costs for everyone and reduces private sector investment.” He noted that within the federal budget, debt “crowds out important priorities and creates a damaging cycle of more borrowing, more interest costs, and even more borrowing.”
Wendy Edelberg, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Congress’s spending and revenue decisions will continue to fuel borrowing well into the coming years. “We’re going to borrow a lot over the course of 2026, we’re going to borrow a lot over the course of 2027, and it’s just going to keep going,” she said.
The Government Accountability Office has outlined several consequences of rising debt for Americans, including higher borrowing costs for mortgages and car loans, slower wage growth, and more expensive goods and services.
Trillion-dollar milestones are arriving at a historically rapid pace. The U.S. hit $34 trillion in January 2024, $35 trillion in July, and $36 trillion in November. Peterson noted that “we are now adding a trillion more to the national debt every five months — more than twice as fast as the average rate over the last 25 years.” At the current pace, the Joint Economic Committee projects another trillion-dollar increase in roughly 173 days.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, urged lawmakers to act swiftly. “Hopefully this milestone is enough to wake up policymakers to the reality that we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly,” she said.
