US national debt tops $40 trillion for first time, doubled under presidents Trump, Biden

The US national debt has exceeded $40 trillion for the first time, doubling under the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. This milestone, reported by the Treasury Department, includes $32.266 trillion in public holdings and $7.782 trillion in intra-governmental debt. Budget watchdog groups, like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warn of a brewing fiscal crisis due to ballooning social safety-net costs and interest payments outpacing revenues.

"Forty trillion dollars of debt doesn't exist solely on the government's ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another,"

said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The debt increase is attributed to COVID-19 pandemic responses and long-running tax-and-spending imbalances. International creditors are showing wariness, with rising yields on Treasury bonds and declining foreign investor demand. Interest costs on the debt have now surpassed Medicare outlays, becoming the second-largest federal budget item after Social Security.