The national debt — which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — fell to $36,214,426,211,363.76 as of April 3rd, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt on its TreasuryDirect website, Debt to the Penny section, publishes – every business day by 3 PM – the Public Debt amount that was outstanding at the end of the previous business day. The system relies on reporting entities (for example, Federal Reserve Banks) that report a variety of Treasury security information at the end of each business day. Democrats say they are willing to work with Republicans on a debt ceiling increase, but not as a pretext to deliver tax cuts that they say will most help the wealthiest Americans at the expense of those who rely on important safety net programs. Experts say an extended default period could result in the loss of millions of jobs and an economic.
- But Republicans must work with us to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
- This rapidly growing imbalance between revenues and spending leads to higher and higher annual deficits, resulting in mounting debt.
- Similar to a home or car loan, interest payments represent the price we pay to borrow money.
- It also tracks the US government spending in real-time based on accurate prediction models.
Americans are very frustrated with the federal government, Charlie Hurt says
The U.S. healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, but we do not really get what we pay for. We spend nearly twice as much on healthcare as other advanced nations, but our system does not provide better overall health outcomes. Improving the performance of the U.S. healthcare system will not only improve Americans’ lives, it will help stabilize our fiscal and economic outlook. The CBO analysis noted that if the government’s borrowing needs are “significantly greater” than projections, the Treasury Department’s resources could be exhausted as early as late May or June. Avi Lerner prepared the report with guidance from Christina Hawley Anthony and Barry Blom and with contributions from John McClelland and Joshua Shakin. All told, cash on hand at the beginning of March plus all the extraordinary measures available between March 1 and July 31 would cover about $820 billion of the Treasury’s financing needs, CBO estimates.
Stay Informed with Real-Time US Debt Data – Download Our
In fact, interest payments on the national debt are projected to be the fastest-growing part of the federal budget over the next three decades, according to the CRFB. The debt ceiling was last addressed in 2023, when Congress suspended it until Jan. 1, 2025, under the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Since January, the Treasury Department has been using “extraordinary measures” to pay its bills and extend the date when it will run out of money.
Trump is a ‘great deal maker’ trying to resolve national security issues while keeping TikTok alive, one CEO says
Washington — The federal government could be unable to pay its bills as soon as August if Congress doesn’t act, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday. You can also check Financial Accounts Table L.210 in FRED for a detailed breakdown of private investor holdings of US debt, including households, banks, insurance national debt clock companies, public and private pension funds, and mutual funds. The U.S. national debt is climbing at a rapid pace and has shown no signs of slowing down, despite the growing criticism of massive levels of government spending. Register with us to become part of an important movement to develop long-term, nonpartisan fiscal solutions for a healthy growing economy. By signing up, you’ll receive our email newsletter with relevant and timely information on economic and fiscal policy.
“The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025,” the nonpartisan budget office said Wednesday. Some large, recurring disbursements—payments to Social Security recipients and outlays for benefits covered under Medicare Part A, for example—are financed by trust funds. Other large disbursements that may be irregular in amount and timing, such as outlays for bank resolutions supported by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, are also financed by dedicated funds. In such cases, the Treasury obtains cash to make those payments by borrowing from the public, but the disbursements reduce the funds’ balances, which are held in the form of special-issue Treasury securities. Because of that reduction in intragovernmental debt, those payments do not affect the total amount of debt subject to limit. That is because as interest rates rise, the federal government’s borrowing costs on its debt will also increase.
Treasury will have to borrow money (by selling securities like Treasury bills, notes, bonds and savings bonds to the public), just like an individual who spends more than what he earns will have to borrow the missing amount from a credit card. Since then, the Treasury Department has stopped paying into certain accounts, including a slew of federal worker pension and disability funds, to make up for the shortfall in money. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has continued to notify Congress about the use of extraordinary measures in an effort to prevent a breach of the debt ceiling. The nation has been through several protracted debt ceiling fights between congressional Democrats and Republicans, including in 2011 and in 2023 when lawmakers suspended the debt limit through Jan. 1, 2025, rather than raising the ceiling by a dollar amount.
The additional room created by that measure is temporary and is lost once the required benefit payments are made. Of the total amount of outstanding debt subject to the statutory limit, four-fifths is debt held by the public; the remaining one-fifth is debt held by government accounts. The Treasury has already reached the current debt limit of $36.1 trillion, so it has no room to borrow under its standard operating procedures other than to replace maturing debt. To avoid breaching the limit, the Treasury has begun using extraordinary measures to continue to borrow additional amounts for a limited time. President Donald Trump has pushed Republicans in Congress to include a provision raising the debt ceiling in the reconciliation package being debated in the House and Senate, which would not require any Democratic votes to pass. Leadership in both chambers has expressed openness to the idea but may face fierce resistance from budget hawks that are typically opposed to raising the limit without significant cuts to government spending.
- Some large, recurring disbursements—payments to Social Security recipients and outlays for benefits covered under Medicare Part A, for example—are financed by trust funds.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025.
- The national debt — which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — fell to $36,214,426,211,363.76 as of April 3rd, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department.
- “This is the leverage they’ve got, maybe with the exception of the next big budget bill, this may be their best opportunity to try to extract something out of it.
- The $36 trillion gross federal debt equals debt held by the public plus debt held by federal trust funds and other government accounts.
- Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with their lack of ability to shape policy in the congressional minority and to combat the Trump administration and some parts of the party hoped to use the looming shutdown to gain policy concessions out of Republicans.
Comprehensive Data
In 2008, the U.S. national debt exceeded $10 (~$14.00 in 2023) trillion, one more digit than the clock could display. The lit dollar-sign in the clock’s leftmost digit position was later changed to the “1” digit to represent the ten-trillionth place. The latest findings from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that the national debt will grow to an astonishing $54 trillion in the next decade, the result of an aging population and rising federal healthcare costs. Similar to a home or car loan, interest payments represent the price we pay to borrow money.
If borrowing this year diverged significantly from that historical pattern, the projected exhaustion date could be earlier or later than CBO is projecting. Conversely, if borrowing through July totaled 25 percent of the projected borrowing for the year, or about $500 billion, extraordinary measures might last through the end of September. In addition, the Treasury may use a short-term measure that allows it to redeem, in advance, securities held by the CSRDF and the PSRHBF in amounts equal to benefit payments that are due within a given debt issuance suspension period. CBO estimates that such payments would amount to about $8 billion per month for the duration of the current debt issuance suspension period.
Most US debt held by government accounts is non-marketable, as is a relatively small fraction of debt held by the public, primarily through defined benefit pension plans for public sector workers. The so-called “X-date” marks when the government could run out of borrowing power and face an unprecedented default without action from Congress to address the debt limit, which caps how much the Treasury can borrow to pay the government’s obligations. The department is currently utilizing so-called “extraordinary measures” to delay a default for several months.
In many ways, healthcare is the most important issue for our nation’s fiscal and economic future. It represents nearly one-fifth of our entire economy, and it is one of the fastest-growing parts of the budget. After the debt limit was reinstated in January, in one of her last acts as Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen said Treasury would institute “extraordinary measures ” intended to prevent the U.S. from reaching the debt ceiling.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025. The projected exhaustion date is uncertain because the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the intervening months could differ from CBO’s projections. Conversely, if borrowing needs fall short of the amounts in CBO’s projections, the extraordinary measures will permit the Treasury to continue financing government activities longer than expected. Such debt is held by individuals and businesses in the United States and other countries, the Federal Reserve System, mutual funds, financial institutions, foreign governments, and other outside investors.
The Congressional Budget Office said the U.S. will hit the “X-date,” when the country would run short of funds to pay its bills, sometime between August and September. That outlook facing several uncertainties like weaker revenue than expected and change the X-date to late May or early June. Another analysis released on Monday from the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates the U.S. will hit the X-date by mid-July. The clock’s first incarnation was installed in 1989 on Sixth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets, one block away from Times Square, by New York real estate developer Seymour Durst, who wanted to highlight the rising national debt. In 2004, the clock was dismantled and a new one installed near 44th Street and Sixth Avenue.
