CBO: Record Debt in 4 Years, Interest Matching Record This Year

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest projections for the budget and economic outlook today, projecting that the national debt will surpass its record as a share of the economy in 2029 and net interest spending will match its record as a share of the economy this year.

CBO projects the budget deficit will rise to $1.9 trillion in 2025 and deficits will total $22 trillion over the decade.

Read our analysis here.

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: 

A fiscally weak country cannot remain a strong nation for long. The United States has built a dangerous mountain of debt quite simply because our political leaders are unwilling to do the hard work of governing responsibly and acting as fiscal stewards for the country. They choose to borrow at record levels rather than acknowledging that part of budgeting is having a plan to pay the bills and despite the incredible damage they continue to inflict on the country as the debt grows. As today’s report shows: our debt is at near-record levels only seen just after WWII, we will spend more on interest than any other program other than Social Security, and Social Security will become insolvent in less than a decade.  

This comes amidst geo-political tensions, growing risks from cyber weapons and weapons of mass destruction, environmental risks and devastating disasters, and a younger generation that stands to inherit all of this along with unprecedented levels of debt.  

What are we doing?  

This is not how we should be running the greatest country in the world, and it is not as parents the situation we should be leaving to our kids.

We need to stop making excuses and start taking care of the country’s crumbling finances.

To start, there should be absolutely no new borrowing. Members of Congress should make an iron-clad commitment not to pass legislation that increases the $22 trillion we are already slated to borrow over the decade, other than in the case of a real emergency, and even then, there needs to be a plan to pay that borrowing back. Last year, even while the economy was strong and inflation was still too high, lawmakers put in place another trillion in borrowing over the decade through new legislation and executive actions, much of it in the final days of the year. Every one of those new dollars in borrowing harms the economy, weakens our national security, and burdens our kids.  

And second, beyond just promising not to make things worse, our leaders need to put a debt deal in place that will stabilize the debt over the coming decade. This will require scouring all parts of the budget—Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, discretionary programs, and taxes. It is cowardly to take things off of the table while avoiding coming up with a solution, and all of our leaders have an obligation to work to improve this unsustainable situation. Hopefully we will get recommendations from the DOGE effort that make significant improvements, but in the meantime, there are plenty of options already out there to reduce deficits.

Confronting this challenge will require leadership from both sides of Capitol Hill, both sides of the political aisle, and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Bond markets are currently sending alarming warning signals about the need to confront our fiscal profligacy. We need our political leadership to listen. 

###

For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director of Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.