Money

Shotlysts - This week, the U.S. national debt will surpass forty trillion dollars. The federal government is borrowing enormous amounts even outside a recession, while higher interest rates are making that accumulated debt increasingly expensive to maintain. The debt is the accumulated result of decades in which federal spending exceeded federal revenue.

Top contributors to the soaring national debt include Social Security, Medicare, and national defense spending. Costs associated with an aging population and other government programs, tax cuts, economic downturns, pandemic relief, and, increasingly, interest on previously accumulated debt are also driving up the total. In just the first ten months of fiscal 2026, the federal government ran an estimated $1.8 trillion deficit, $169 billion larger than during the comparable period a year earlier.