The United States owes $31 trillion. Washington now spends about $1 trillion more each year than it collects in revenue, forcing the Treasury Department to borrow to make up the difference. Which means the national debt is still growing.
Without big changes, the debt will soon be bigger as a share of the economy than when it peaked at the end of World War II. Most of that debt has accumulated over the past 20 years. In 2001, the nation actually had a cash surplus — the Treasury collected more in taxes than it spent on government services.
Since then, four presidents, 10 sessions of Congress and two wars have contributed to the tide of red ink. Thanks in part to policy decisions made generations ago, Social Security and Medicare are growing in cost, also adding to the debt. Although interest payments remain low by historical standards as a share of the nation’s economy, that could change quickly.
More recent decisions — budget-busting tax cuts, bipartisan spending deals and staggering sums to cope with the coronavirus pandemic — have all forced the nation to sink more deeply in debt. Here are nine key moments that show how we got here.President George W. Bush signs the first of two major tax cuts into law, slashing rates on ordinary income as well as on capital gains and dividends.
that the Bush tax cuts added roughly $1.5 trillion to the national debt. The majority of these tax cuts would later be made permanent in a deal between congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama, adding to their cost.After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States invades Iraq. America would go on to spend roughly 20 years fighting wars in the Middle East, leading to a surge in spending on the Pentagon and veterans.
has found that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan cost the nation between $4 trillion and $6 trillion.Medicare Part D — a major expansion of Medicare that offered prescription drug coverage to seniors — goes into effect nearly three years after being signed into law by Bush. Republicans who controlled Congress did not pay for the popular, but expensive, initiative.
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