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US national debt reaches a record $37T, the Treasury Department reports
- toomuchtodo 1y agohttps://usafacts.org/government-spending/ https://usafacts.org/government-spending/
- xnx 1y agoIt doesn't look like that chart was updated to show the 2T savings from DOGE. /s
- duxup 1y agoI'm mildly surprised they were allowed to report this.
- rbanffy 1y agoThis administration isn’t known for being proactive.
- Freedom2 1y agoDo you mind explaining what you mean? I believe some smart HN commenters here stated that this administration would be the most transparent one ever, so I'm not entirely sure where the surprise would come from!
- duxup 1y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/business/trump-bls-firing-economic-reports.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/business/trump-bls-firing...
- scottiebarnes 1y agoOn my reading list: Principles For Navigating Big Debt Crises by Ray Dalio
- mandeepj 1y agoI bought the Audible version! All those numbers got pretty hard to track early on
- bradhe 1y agoReported. It'll be amended soon after the statisticians get fired and yes-men get put in.
- tencentshill 1y agoCurrent treasury head is Scott Bessent, previously of Soros Fund Management and Key Square Group. He's far too qualified to be part of this administration. Expect him gone soon.
- gausswho 1y ago[flagged]
- duxup 1y ago[flagged]
- treetalker 1y ago[flagged]
- NomDePlum 1y agoHe's been in place since January so that suggests he's sticking about. During that time he's been actively campaigning for policies that are questionable but highly aligned with this administration: BBB, crypto, interest rate cuts. So qualified or not I can't see your prediction coming true. Money men on the inside of this administration are only going to make money, why make waves even if it makes normal Americans poorer. That's been happening since Reagan.
- throw0101c 1y ago> He's been in place since January so that suggests he's sticking about. Since January there have been 4 Acting Commissioners of the IRS, then Billy Long was confirmed, but was kicked out after ~2 months, and now Scott Bessent (also Treasury Secretary) is Acting head: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner_of_Internal_Revenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioner_of_Internal_Reven...
- Terr_ 1y agoFor the visually-inclined, a graph of debt as a proportion of GDP [0]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDGDPA188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDGDPA188S Of course, this doesn't show projections for what the future debt will become after the Republican's "BBB" package from a few months ago. [0] Yes, I know GDP is a flawed measure, but as long as its flaws are consistent over the years it is useful for scaling.
- the_real_cher 1y agoWhat a cool graph. Interesting to see the issues that get the ire of the current administration like food stamps and education and foreign aid are minuscule line items on that visualization.
- emchammer 1y agoIt looks like it was under control for a while following World War II, but then from the early 1980s, it's hard for me not correlate the first derivative of the slope of that graph with presidential party.
- secabeen 1y agoWhat do you specifically see? I see two big increases in debt, both due to shocks (the 08 financial crisis, and the pandemic; one under Obama, and one under Trump.). Pre 2008, it does look like moderate increases under Reagan/Bush1 and Bush 2, and flat to decrease under Clinton, is that what you mean?
- emchammer 1y agoYes, that's roughly what I see. The bottom of the Y axis on this graph is 30% which can be a little deceptive. It looks to me like Clinton and Obama had a terrible challenge in bringing this under control following the early 1980s and the 2008 financial crises and they did what they could, and then there is also Reaganomics. It just looks so hopeless because this figure is as high as it was following the war. Now Biff Tannen's in the White House, and he'll be knocking down walls. I don't think the system was meant to handle human greed on this scale.
- mdhb 1y agoJust in time for captain genius, leader of the financially responsible party to decide that his primary goal is to make sure corporations and billionaires pay less tax. I’m sure that will go just fine.
- jleyank 1y agoMaybe billionaires pay less tax, but companies seem to be taking it in the shorts from tariffs. Unless, of course, they push them onto consumers.
- h4ck_th3_pl4n3t 1y agoWait until companies realize that they will have to pay on the double for education soon, because nobody's gonna be able to hire unqualified people from within the US.
- mindslight 1y agoI'm sure there were a lot of naive people who voted for the Republican party for their first time because something from Trump's word salad resonated with them, and they are now finding out what that Party is actually about. Surprise! All that whining about the debt was total kayfabe. Don't say we didn't try to warn you.
- duxup 1y ago>they are now finding out I hope so ... I dunno.
- epolanski 1y agoThe political discourse globally has turned into a giant "us vs them". I'm Polish/Italian and in my countries it's similar to USA, we've just voted a populist troll as a president not because we like him but "because he's not one of those we despise". Marketing, data scientists and strategist have effectively manipulated public opinion into further polarization.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoThis entire thread is a good example of the kind of rhetoric that led us there.
- mindslight 1y agoMy assuming that people were taken in by Trump dishonestly speaking to their real and earnest frustrations is a most charitable interpretation compared to the other possible alternatives.
- thrance 1y agoI think they're on board with crashing the country, as long as their enemies suffer more.
- cosmicgadget 1y agoDoesn't kayfabe require that they not be naive to his lies?
- the_real_cher 1y agoMan the debt was actually going DOWN after 2020?
- BryantD 1y agoOnly as a percentage of GDP. Pandemic recovery was not cheap. However, yes, Biden and/or his economic advisors did a pretty good job of managing the economy.
- criddell 1y agoBill Clinton was probably the last fiscally conservative president we've had or will have for a long time.
- xnx 1y agoAl Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) is the exact opposite of DOGE: thoughtful, methodical, effective, and lasting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Partnership_for_Reinventing_Government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Partnership_for_Reinv...
- epolanski 1y agoDebt as % GDP, not debt per se. Stimulus provided lots of growth.
- lossolo 1y agoYep, GDP ballooned from inflation, not because the debt actually fell.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y agoHow do you guys see this ending? I don't see this ending well but I can't imagine what happens. Seems unsustainable but nobody wants to deal with it.
- jiggawatts 1y agoI’ve always said America is the richest third world country on the planet. Just like tinpot dictatorships accumulating IMF debt, the orange dictator in the Whitehouse will keep taking on debt for completely selfish political points and zero consideration of “the people” or the future. He’s 79 years old. What future? In the coming decades the USA will end up just like every other failed state. Women will have their reproductive rights taken away so they can be men’s property and fulfil their traditional roles and responsibilities. Intellectual institutions will be defunded or outright abolished, because they oppose the regime’s messaging. The minority in charge will scapegoat some already powerless minority to distract the general populace. In the end, their own propaganda will force their hand and they’ll have to enact some sort of dire measure, a “final solution” like concentration camps. Despite the dire state of the economy, military spending will paradoxically increase and the armed forces will be increasingly used against citizens. …oh. Too late, I guess.
- bithive123 1y agoOn a long enough timeline we're all dead. In the near term, expect a lot of stupid decisions and huffing and puffing based on an ideological framing of what the national debt is. I am not an economist or finance guy, but I have noticed a lot of debt hysteria from people who don't seem to understand basic accounting. That is, one party's asset is another party's liability. You cannot have buying without selling, and so on. Your mortgage is a liability for you, but an asset for your bank. Your checking account is an asset for you, but a liability for your bank. I'm not saying the debt can grow infinitely, but clearly if some of that debt is held as assets by the non-government (most of the world including you and me) then paying off that debt means a wealth transfer from the non-government back to the government. This isn't necessarily in my interests. If the government has to claw those dollars back from somewhere, I'd rather them start with the richest people. But that doesn't happen for obvious reasons.
- VaderLied 1y ago[dead]
- starchild3001 1y agoAt this rate, the debt ceiling’s going to need its own space program! Thank you, Mr. T, and to all those before you who let avoidable crises happen, handed out tax cuts to your richest friends, and slapped it all on the national credit card. The people of this country will be feeling your “generosity” and recklessness for decades to come. PS: I'd invite everyone to examine how US Debt/GDP grew unbounded. The biggest culprits seem to be i) financial crisis and ii) covid. I consider both of them avoidable, man-made. When you have reckless leaders who have no interest in protecting the nation from man-made and natural catastrophies this is what you get. And obviously, you have massive tax cuts added on top, which have been completely uncalled for, given our ginormous debt. As a follow-up, maybe briefly ask yourself: What additional tail risks are actively being ignored today? Whose job is it to minimize those? Then think about the wholesale dismantling of the US government (under Doge), eliminating the post-crisis financial regulation, actively contributing to climate change...
- msgodel 1y ago[flagged]
- defrost 1y agoDid you catch the part where Trump repeatedly claimed to reduce the debt once in office and has since done the opposite (despite the smoke and mirrors called DOGE).
- msgodel 1y agoSo you're saying that if we want something we should vote for the opposite?
- mindslight 1y agoWell you certainly shouldn't vote for the con artist with a proven track record of blatantly lying. Especially when he keeps mentioning the subject, salivating at the prospect of having another turn at the trough.
- rationalfaith 1y ago[dead]
- ourmandave 1y agoIt's fine. As long as the US dollar is the global currency, we can run the money printer as long as we want. Once that ends, well... =(
- ivape 1y agoThe BRICS are de-dollarizing. It's going to suck when this check comes due because we won't be able to raise debt to pay this down. It's in our interest for the world to prosper and rely on us because that's basically how we keep our lifestyle financed. Brazil and India just said fuck off with the tariffs to Trump, and China and Russia are in a cold war with us. Some president absolutely needs to rehabilitate this soon, at least with a few of the BRICS.
- simonsarris 1y agoThe amount of snarky comments here is truly insane. Flippant stuff used to be downvoted/shadowed immediately on HN, now it seems to be the median in some political threads. This started changing around 2019 but it's really accelerated lately.
- FridayoLeary 1y agoIt's a bit disappointing. This is HN, and this is actually important and interesting. It's a shame this thread is just a group therapy session of people blaming Trump for everything bad that's ever happened.
- const_cast 1y agoI think they're blaming Trump for stuff that he actually directly did, and then bragged about. The reality is if you actual listen to Trump, which none of his supporters ever do, but if you did, you'd know his platform is "make everything more shit for everyone, and we'll save some money... maybe" Well, he did thing 1. But the saving money part? How much are we saving now, like, -2 Trillion? And, in exchange, more poor people on Medicaid will lose coverage, everything is more expensive, and we've gutted just about every social service we can. Its like paying 200 dollars for a burger and then instead of giving you a burger they actually reach down your throat and rip out your small intestine. This is just a bad deal. Or, in Trump language, "I told them - this is the worst deal ever. That's what I told them. Yeah. And everyone agreed with me. Yeah yeah. The biggest, most garbage deal ever"
- more_corn 1y agoI thought Trump was going to fix that? Oh right his bill made the debt INCREASE. I guess all that talk about saving money was just a front to defund social programs conservatives hate and increase spending on things they like.
- treetalker 1y agoFolks, folks, please: If you keep focusing on figuring out what the facts are, and on using government data to do it, two things are going to happen. First, this post will be flagged into oblivion. And second, if the Administration doesn't succeed in firing everyone at the St. Louis Fed and installing others who will report data it likes better, it will enter an executive order to take over Hacker News.
- tsoukase 1y agoIt would be nice if the whole NY stock exchange is used to pay up the national debt bill. It would bring US financial status back to its glorious beginnings and continue from there. A restart is needed...