New numbers show the US government is piling a staggering amount of debt onto its balance sheet every single day.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) says the federal government is now borrowing $8 billion per day just to keep things running.
Citing data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the organization’s president Maya MacGuineas says the government borrowed more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in the first month of the 2025 fiscal year, which runs from October 1st, 2024 to September 30th, 2025.
“With a deficit of $255 billion in just the first month of the fiscal year and borrowing $8 billion per day, this should be a reminder that our borrowing isn’t letting up on its own.”
MacGuineas also warns that the government’s rapidly increasing national debt could reduce Social Security benefits within a decade.
“What remains consistent is the massive underlying burden of our national debt. In the next two years, debt will exceed its all-time record share of the economy; in less than ten years, Social Security beneficiaries face automatic benefit cuts if policymakers continue to do nothing to fix it.”
The CRFB is not the only one sounding the alarm over the US government’s record-level debt. Ratings agency Moody’s warns that the government will likely pay higher interest rates to take on new debt if it continues to print large budget deficits, reports Reuters.
“In the absence of policy measures to help limit fiscal deficits, the federal government’s deteriorating fiscal strength will increasingly weigh on the US sovereign credit profile.”
In November of last year, Moody’s downgraded its AAA credit rating outlook for the US to “negative” from “stable,” citing increased downside risks to the country’s fiscal strength.
At time of writing, the US national debt stands at $35.95 trillion.
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