Trump and his Congress are dozing on debt

This month the national debt exceeded a staggering $40 trillion, more than double what it was in 2017. Nobody, of any political affiliation, should be surprised. For the past decade or so, Congress and the White House have ignored the borrow-and-spend problem and are not even contemplating an eventual solution.

Present practice burdens the future. The problem is simple to state, daunting to solve. Since 1989 a billboard-sized “national debt clock” near Times Square has recorded an inexorable rise. The warnings of trouble have gone on for that long.

Both major political parties grew the problem by extending deep corporate tax cuts, escalating military costs, and as ever failing to agree in Washington on ways to control rising expenses.

Debt has soared, compounded and piled up over the years, including what was deemed necessary to cover unbalanced year-to-year budgets due to genuine crises such as the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008 financial collapse.

All the while, the aging of the population put constant pressure on the federal budget. Social Security and Medicare accounted for more than one-third of all federal spending in 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

While Americans pay into those systems through payroll and income taxes, they have a persistent shortfall of hundreds of billions of dollars.

For perspective: Americans are in the same boat as others. Government debt, more or less, is the way of the world. Of major economies, Japan, Singapore, Italy and Greece, are all reported to have higher debt-to-GDP ratios than the U.S.

RELENTLESS PRESSURE ON INTEREST RATES

But snowballing debt is an economic hindrance that can’t be borne indefinitely. It puts unrelenting pressure on interest rates and on all kinds of costs. It propels inflation. Interest payments now add up to an enlarged share of the nation’s spending, making less available for new needs. The federal government spends more just on servicing debt than on either national defense or Medicare — 19% to 22% of collected federal tax revenue, according to the fiscally conservative Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

In 2017, President Donald Trump’s first year in office, the congressional GOP majority agreed to slash the federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. That meant more would have to be borrowed to cover deficits to come. Through four years under President Joe Biden, Democrats in Congress did not manage to restore any of the dramatic cuts. Further cuts followed in Trump’s second term, in 2025.

While some argue tax cuts eventually grow federal revenues, Trump’s entangled war on Iran spikes military spending, and demands for even more elaborate armaments, which accelerates the borrowing.

In April, after the start of a new Mideast intervention, which has stymied petroleum shipping, Linda Bilmes, a leading Harvard expert on public finance, said “I am certain we will reach one trillion dollars” for the cost of the Iran war.”

Americans still carry debt on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Now Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeks a stunning $67 billion to continue our befuddling approach in the Middle East.

What’s so frustrating to those who remember is that the titanic fiscal fights during the 2010s, when Democrats wanted to boost government tax revenues while Republicans wanted to restructure entitlements, ended without a solution.

NEED FOR LEADERS FOCUSED ON DEFICITS

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who took office in 2011, said in a recent Substack essay that Congress failed when the debt total was $14 trillion. Now, Kinzinger says, “whatever crisis comes next — recession, pandemic, war, something none of us can picture yet — Americans will walk into it $40 trillion in the hole and climbing.”

“Arithmetic eventually gets a vote whether we’re ready for it or not,” Kinzinger said.

Some lawmakers are now talking about new commissions and studies and mechanisms to control debt. But unless there are political leaders who focus on reducing deficits helpful action is unlikely.

When he first ran in 2016, Trump said: “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me... I’ve made a fortune by using debt, and if things don’t work out I renegotiate the debt.” Unfortunately, he’d already driven several business enterprises bankrupt.

DOGE AND TARIFFS MADE NO NO DENT

A decade later, the president dodges the issue by claiming economic growth “will take care of it.” So far, his so-called Department of Government Efficiency and numerous tariffs have made no dent.

After all the noise years ago about commissions and studies and sequestration and “fiscal cliffs,” are fiscal discipline and common sense just around the corner at the Capitol? Nothing we hear sounds like it. Voters in the midterm House races should demand candidates present a plan. Otherwise, borrowing to cover spending will likely go on unabated.

The big interest rates investors are demanding for U.S. Treasury bonds present a clear warning that they fear inflation will stay elevated, driving even higher rates for mortgages and corporate borrowing. There are proposals for new commissions and mechanisms to reduce debt. But the problem can’t be solved with another cage match between raising taxes and spending less on vital programs.

With little time to spare, what to do about the debt must be the key issue in the midterms. Ask your House candidates about an independent, bipartisan commission to come up with a debt reduction plan. If not, what’s their solution?