Economy > National Debt

National Debt Reaches a Scary Milestone

As government deficit spending diminishes economic growth, it pushes the nation’s economic output, the GDP, well below its potential.

S.T. Karnick | May 29, 2026

The U.S. national debt has crossed an ominous threshold, rising above 100 percent of national gross domestic product, or GDP. This is the first time since World War II that debt has been so high a percentage of national economic output.

That is a big problem because the federal debt undermines the value of the U.S. dollar and diverts investment from the wealth-creating private sector. The rising debt and its pressure on the nation’s economy will force the federal government and Federal Reserve, the latter led by newly confirmed chair Kevin Warsh, to make hard decisions they have put off for decades.

Many among the public will suffer as a result, especially the elderly, who rely on Social Security and Medicare.

GDP is the total amount of spending in the nation’s economy. At the end of March, federal debt held by the public was $31.265 trillion, and GDP in 2025 was $31.216 trillion.

The rise of debt-to-GDP is accelerating because the federal budget is structurally unsound. The government “is spending $1.33 for every dollar it collects in revenue, and the budget deficit this year is projected at $1.9 trillion,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Over the past two decades, the annual federal budget deficit has expanded far beyond what was........

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