US national debt reaches a record $37 trillion, the Treasury Department
reports
[August 13, 2025]
By FATIMA HUSSEIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government’s gross national debt has
surpassed $37 trillion, a record number that highlights the accelerating
debt on America’s balance sheet and increased cost pressures on
taxpayers.
The $37 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department
report issued Tuesday which logs the nation's daily finances.
The national debt eclipsed $37 trillion years sooner than pre-pandemic
projections. The Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections
had gross federal debt eclipsing $37 trillion after fiscal year 2030.
But the debt grew faster than expected because of a multi-year COVID-19
pandemic starting in 2020 that shut down much of the U.S. economy, where
the federal government borrowed heavily under then-President Donald
Trump and former President Joe Biden to stabilize the national economy
and support a recovery.
And now, more government spending has been approved after Trump signed
into law Republicans' tax cut and spending legislation earlier this
year. The law set to add $4.1 trillion to the national debt over the
next decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.
Chair and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Michael Peterson said
in a statement that government borrowing puts upward pressure on
interest rates, “adding costs for everyone and reducing private sector
investment. Within the federal budget, the debt crowds out important
priorities and creates a damaging cycle of more borrowing, more interest
costs, and even more borrowing.”
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Wendy Edelberg, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings
Institution said Congress has a major role in setting in motion spending
and revenue policy and the result of the Republicans' tax law "means
that we’re going to borrow a lot over the course of 2026, we’re going to
borrow a lot over the course of 2027, and it’s just going to keep
going."
The Government Accountability Office outlines some of the impacts of
rising government debt on Americans — including higher borrowing costs
for things like mortgages and cars, lower wages from businesses having
less money available to invest, and more expensive goods and services.
Peterson points out how the trillion-dollar milestones are “piling up at
a rapid rate.”
The U.S. hit $34 trillion in debt in January 2024, $35 trillion in July
2024 and $36 trillion in November 2024. “We are now adding a trillion
more to the national debt every 5 months," Peterson said. "That’s more
than twice as fast as the average rate over the last 25 years.”
The Joint Economic Committee estimates at the current average daily rate
of growth an increase of another trillion dollars to the debt would be
reached in approximately 173 days.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal
Budget said in a statement that “hopefully this milestone is enough to
wake up policymakers to the reality that we need to do something, and we
need to do it quickly.”
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