US debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: msn/The Hill

12h


The U.S. national debt crossed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of March, with signs that it might cross the record of 106 percent of GDP reached immediately after World War II. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released data on the national debt reaching 100.2 percent of GDP on Thursday, noting that debt held by the public on March 31 was $31.27 trillion.

GDP over the last year was $31.22 trillion. The national debt was at 99.5 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal 2025 in September. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said the borrowing did not come from “a seismic global conflict, but rather a total bipartisan abdication of making hard choices.”

“It’s happened — the national debt is now larger than the U.S. economy, about twice the historic average,” she said in a statement reacting to the news. “We’ve heard plenty of alarm bells in the past few years about our fiscal path, but this one rings especially loudly,” MacGuineas continued. “The real question is whether or not our leaders in Washington will listen.”

A daily statement from the Treasury Department last month revealed that the U.S. national debt surpassed $39 trillion, a record reached just five months after the debt sailed past the $38 trillion mark. The government spends $1.33 for every dollar collected as revenue, with the budget deficit projected at $1.9 trillion this year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-debt-exceeds-100-percent-of-gdp/ar-AA227Z4j

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The government spends $1.33 for every dollar collected as revenue

Because the GOP CUT the incoming revenue provided by BILLIONAIRES. The bottom 99% can't make up for the revenue loss from the billionaire grift.

[cstanleytech]

1. More proof of Republican incompetency.

[Wednesdays]

16. More proof of Republican hypocrisy.

Remember all those screaming deficit hawks during Obama's and Biden's administrations?

Awfully quiet now, huh?

[Lovie777]

26. More proof of the GQP's greed......

[BlueWavePsych]

2. K&R

[twodogsbarking]

3. Just take out a 500 year mortgage.

[twodogsbarking]

4. See, we need that ballroom to save the economy.

[durablend]

5. And this will be why

If we do win "WE CAN'T AFFORD IT" will be the screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech from the right

[OldBaldy1701E]

9. Which is why every single one of them needs to be pointed out.

Because, once this regime is gone, they need to be held accountable for their biased economic vision (i.e.: that the rich are the best people on the planet and we are supposed to just bow and take it. I know we won't, because our lips are all but glued to their asses, but we really need to start doing this.)

[Hugin]

6. The very definition of bankrupt. n/t

[IronLionZion]

7. Just wait until the tax cuts trickle down

just keep waiting while GOP gives out more tax cuts, starts more expensive wars, and then kindly offers to cut more healthcare and education benefits to balance it out.

Billionaires will trickle it down eventually when they get tired of being billionaires.

[Ray Bruns]

8. You know what would solve this problem? Another tax cut for billionaires and corporations

[SamuelAdams]

10. It's curious we don't hear the GOP talking about the debt right now.

I'm sure the capital gains tax cut they are reportedly considering will solve the problem.

[progree]

11. Not true, the national debt passed 100% of GDP in 2012, and is now at about 122.8% of GDP

Last edited Fri May 1, 2026, 07:08 PM - Edit history (2)

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S?cid=5
In Q4 2025 it was 122.8% of GDP

=========================================

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny
The Debt to the Penny dataset provides information about the total outstanding public debt and is reported each day. Debt to the Penny is made up of intragovernmental holdings and debt held by the public, including securities issued by the U.S. Treasury. T

4/29/2026
debt held by the public: $31,264,482,575,337.52
intragovernmental holdings: $7,687,592,673,364.13
total public debt outstanding: $38,952,075,248,701.65

=========================================

As for GDP, I can't find the damn page anymore at bea.gov that used to give both the real GDP (i.e. inflation-adjusted) and current-dollar GDP in DOLLARS. It's the current-dollar GDP IN DOLLARS that I'm after, but I can't find either.

But for now, there is this:
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/gdp-update
Current-dollar GDP: $31.856 Trillion for Q1 2026 update
($31.422 Trillion in Q4 2025)

which about matches "GDP over the last year was $31.22 trillion" in the OP's article from The Hill

Anyway, total public debt outstanding: $38,952,075,248,701.65 divided by Q1 2026 current dollar GDP $31.856 Trillion is 122.3%

The Fred source at the top of this post is the older Q4 2025 number. They apparently don't update until the final estimate is in (that's due May 28).

The intragovernmental holdings are not some wonky accounting item. Those are the trust funds including the Social Security Trust Fund and the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund. I'm not sure about the latter (I just don't have time to look up every goddam thing when I see media bullshit posts, I do have a personal life and responsibilities), but the Social Security trust fund has been drawn down some over the past few years to continue to provide promised S.S. benefits. This process will continue until an estimated 2034 or whatever when the SSTF is estimated to be exhausted (and that's not right-wing scare-seniors bullshit, that's in the Trustee's 2024 report signed by 4 high DEMOCRATIC officials including the then-Secretary of The Treasury Janet Yellen.

I've never seen the national debt conflated with the debt held by the public (and so not including the government's debt to the trust funds, which I take extremely very seriously, otherwise my SS benefits would be getting reduced already).

I will work on getting an official source of current-dollar GDP IN DOLLARS, but I can't get to it today. I've already spent close to an hour looking.

I submitted a webmail to https://www.bea.gov/help/contact-us at about 10 AM EDT today, May 1.

DOGE and other assholes have been reorganizing the pages and reducing the amount of information, in the name of "efficiency". That has wrecked a lot of the links I have been relying on for more than a decade (and telling other people about at http://www.democraticunderground.com/111622439 for more than a decade).

It seems to me that the BEA.gov, which is responsible for the GDP reports, would somewhere, somehow report the GDP figures in DOLLARS, and that would be bare-bones fundamental information that would be easily accessible.

FRED almost certainly has GDP in DOLLARS info too, but I haven't searched them yet. But they are a secondary source (getting their info from BEA.gov in this case), so I still rather get GDP DOLLAR info from the primary source (AND CERTAINLY NOT FROM MEDIA REPORTS)

ETA- yes FRED does

FRED GDP (apparently current-dollar), Q1 2026 31,856.257 Billion$ -- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP
. . . Q4 2025: 31,422.526 Billion $

FRED Real GDP Q1 2026: 24,174.527 Billion $ -- https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1

ETA Re: the above, "I submitted a webmail to https://www.bea.gov/help/contact-us at about 10 AM EDT today, May 1."

I got this response about 3 1/2 hours after submitting my request:

Good afternoon. Our GDP and related data can be accessed in our Interactive Data Tables ( https://www.bea.gov/itable/national-gdp-and-personal-income ) , with the option to download a user-defined data range in several formats. Current dollar levels are available in NIPA Tables 1.1.5 and 1.5.5 (greater detail) and real dollar levels are available in Tables 1.1.6 and 1.5.6. Please let us know if you need assistance finding any other specific data set and we will try to direct you to the right reports. Thank you for reaching out to us."

So I clicked on the link above and then on the big orange "Interactive Data Tables" button , and on the page that came up, I clicked on: "Section 1 - Domestic Product And Income" which expanded to include a list of tables, and then I clicked on "Table 1.1.5. Gross Domestic Product (A)(Q), and there it is on the top line. ... 2025 Q4: 31,422.5, 2026 Q1: 31,856.3.

This is the URL of that page, sigh, https://apps.bea.gov/iTable/?reqid=19&step=2&isuri=1&categories=survey&_gl=1*15cmsuy*_ga*ODA5NjU0OTA0LjE3NzU3Mzc2NTM.*_ga_J4698JNNFT*czE3Nzc2NzU2NDMkbzckZzEkdDE3Nzc2NzU4NTQkajYwJGwwJGgw#eyJhcHBpZCI6MTksInN0ZXBzIjpbMSwyLDNdLCJkYXRhIjpbWyJjYXRlZ29yaWVzIiwiU3VydmV5Il0sWyJOSVBBX1RhYmxlX0xpc3QiLCI1Il1dfQ==

I sent a thank you, I found it with your instructions.

(So it was right there all the time, silly me, and just 5 steps (sarc) )

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. "Debt held by the public" is what would be used for international comparisons

The US's "trust fund" approach is far from universal (particularly for healthcare). So, for instance, the IMF lists Net Debt, General Government, Percent of GDP
https://data.imf.org/en/Data-Explorer?datasetUrn=IMF.RES:WEO%289.0.0%29
Their most recent figures, for the G7, are:
US 98.527%
Japan 134.306%
Germany 49.388%
UK 95.47%
France 110.247%
Italy 128.983%
Canada 10.342%

[progree]

22. At the bottom of post 11 above, I found out how to find current-dollar GDP IN DOLLARS, with the help of their webmail

reply.

This is the much-touted Republican efficiency, which we've all secretly loved and admired all these many years (sarc).

I wonder why they are hiding it so deeply?

[Bayard]

12. An interesting chart

Showing national debt for each president--how much it was when they came into office, and how much when they left. Nixon nearly doubled it.

https://www.us-debt-clock.com/presidents

[travelingthrulife]

13. The Republicans are breaking the United States for Putin.

[twodogsbarking]

14. Where I grew up they would say "we're fucked".

[Torchlight]

17. Save a prayer for the rich and craven

if we didn't lower their taxes (again), they'd move to another country (as the meritless narrative so weaves)

[LT Barclay]

18. If I remember correctly, the debt is close to the amount stashed over seas by the super wealthy.

Just saying,,,

[BaronChocula]

19. Shocker!

So what demographic of people STILL believe republicans are better at handling the economy?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

20. Time to end the myth of Republicans being fiscal conservatives

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. MaddowBlog-National debt crosses a historic threshold, exposing absurdity of Trump campaign promises

In his first term, the president said he’d “easily” reduce the debt, but he delivered the opposite results. In his second term, it’s happening again.

National debt crosses a historic threshold, exposing absurdity of Trump campaign promises - MS NOW apple.news/Abbys4GLtSku...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-05-01T19:27:47.232Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/national-debt-crosses-a-historic-threshold-exposing-absurdity-of-trump-campaign-promises

Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, congressional Republicans warned that the nation was facing a devastating debt crisis, which would bankrupt the United States and devastate the nation’s fiscal standing for generations. GOP officials warned that without dramatic action, the enormous national debt would reach the same size as the overall U.S. economy — a threshold that would spell immediate doom.

Roughly a decade later, take a wild guess what threshold we just crossed. The Wall Street Journal reported:

The U.S. national debt now exceeds 100% of gross domestic product, crossing a once-unthinkable threshold, on the way toward breaking the record set in the wake of World War II. […]

By itself, the milestone doesn’t mean much. There isn’t a special level where debt goes from problematic to catastrophic. And the ratio might bounce around in coming quarters as tax receipts come in, tariff refunds go out and GDP fluctuates in response to inflation and revisions. Still, the triple-digit mark is a potent symbol of the fiscal stresses on the U.S. that have been building for decades.

.....While we’re at it, we could also spend some time talking about the fact that deficit reduction is no longer a Republican priority at all — it was, for example, entirely ignored in the latest White House budget proposal — as GOP policymakers focus instead on massive tax breaks (which make the debt worse) and massive increases in defense spending (which also make the debt worse).

.....Once in office, deficits predictably exploded as a direct result of the Republican’s policies. By the end of his first term, Trump had added nearly $7.8 trillion to the national debt in just one term, and most of that total was racked up before the Covid crisis.

Nevertheless, when he returned to the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 race, Trump apparently felt comfortable pulling the same trick twice, telling voters, “We’re going to pay off … the $35 trillion in debt. We’re going to pay it off. We’re going to get it done fast, too.”

The president returned to power and added an additional $1.8 trillion to the debt during the first year of his second term.

If recent history is any guide, voters will eventually elect another Democratic president, at which point Republicans will again pretend to care about the nation’s fiscal health. But when that happens, there will be no reason to take the GOP’s claims seriously.

[progree]

23. Except that GDP was 31.4225 Trillion$ in Q4 2025, and 31.8563 Trillion$ in Q1 2026

while the sign says the national debt is $38 trillion.

Please see post #11 above, and muriel_volestrangler in #15 about the confusion.

Anyway, your (and Rachel Maddow's) point is taken - the national debt has gone up and up under the current administration, and the first Trump administration, and all Republican administrations for decades and decades.

https://www.us-debt-clock.com/presidents
(this link came from Bayard in post#12)

[Igel]

28. Obama was right when he said that during recessions, sure, deficit spending.

But once the recession's over, you should pay down the debt. That was meant as a reproof to Bush 2, but it's not like it's something he managed to pull off. (It's hard to reduce the deficit. You either have to stop giving people an income stream or benefit they've come to think they're entitled to or you have to take away a possession or income in some way earned from people. I mean, even the interest on my T-bills is something I've 'earned' by simply not spending the money that I could put into T-bills--think of it as 'deferred gratification', because I know I could find something to do with those few thousands of dollars that would be more fun than navigating Treasury Direct.)

That link that you (and Bayard) posted, doesn't show him doing that. Nor does it show that the deficit got smaller under Clinton than Bush 1, Obama than Bush 2, and Biden than Trump 1.0. In fact, the deficit increased more., but I can't tell if they're in constant dollars or inflated dollars.)

Although it must be granted that under Trump 1.0 and early Biden it was COVID spending driving the debt--and that had people tried to reduce the deficit there'd have been hell to pay. (I mean, even as Trump was heading for the exit we manage to foist a half-trillion "mail everybody another check" measure on him with the threat of a government shut down if the (R) didn't accede to the measure and Trump didn't agree to sign it. But I'm not sure when that money actually was debited, whether in the few weeks left of Trump 1.0 or the first few months of Biden.)

[Wiz Imp]

30. Maddow Blog is written by Steve Benen, not Rachel Maddow.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. ...

[City Lights]

25. The Ballroom Republicans are bankrupting this nation

with their reckless spending and refusal to increase taxes on the über wealthy.

[CousinIT]

27. It took Trump only 15 months to bankrupt America.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

29. Another bankruptcy coming under Trump only this time it's an entire country.-

[LetMyPeopleVote]

31. For this thread