The Trump Treasury is now taking donations from Americans who want to help pay down the US national debt, which is now at yet another all-time high of $39 trillion, according to the department’s own official website. That means regular Americans, many already dealing with high prices, expensive gas brought on by Trump’s illegal war in Iran, rent, groceries, and living paychecks to paychecks, are now expected to send their own money to Washington to help pay the bill they played barely a part in accruing. About four decades ago, the national debt was close to $907 billion, but today, interest on that borrowing has become one of the biggest costs in the federal budget. For the fiscal year that started last October, interest payments are now higher than what Washington spends on Medicare and higher than the defense budget. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 57% of Americans wanted the president and Congress to make cutting the budget deficit a top priority, up from 45% one year earlier. Washington asks taxpayers for cash while borrowing costs pass Medicare and defense Economists have been warning that the federal debt path looks bad because Congress and the White House keep approving spending faster than the government can pay for it. The pressure grew after President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that the law will add $3.4 trillion to deficits over the next ten years. Trump’s team says tariff money and faster economic growth will help cover the cost, but the CBO’s latest data is pointing to a much bigger federal burden, and also predicts that the national debt will surge to $54 trillion over the next decade. Fitch Ratings had cut the United States’ long-term credit grade in mid-2023, taking it from AAA to AA+, saying it is because of weaker public finances, a heavier borrowing load, and political fights in Washington that continue to block serious action. Moody’s Ratings, owned by Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO), followed in May. It became the third major rating agency to strip the US of its highest grade, lowering the rating from Aaa to Aa1 on its 21-level scale. Moody’s said interest costs could rise from 9% of federal revenue to 30% by 2035. “Successive U.S. administrations and Congress have failed to agree on measures to reverse the trend of large annual fiscal deficits and growing interest costs,” Moody’s wrote. Trump and Biden administrations’ records show both added quite a lot to the federal tab Interest rates were quite high after inflation hit a 40-year high in 2022, so the Biden administration had to finance borrowing in a harsher market. By September 2022, less than two years into office, Biden had approved about $4.8 trillion in borrowing. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said that the total included $1.85 trillion for the American Rescue Plan, the COVID relief law, and $370 billion for the bipartisan infrastructure package. Biden defended the spending and pointed to a $1.7 trillion drop in the deficit during his term. The US deficit did fall between fiscal years 2020 and 2022, but a lot of that came because emergency COVID programs ended, so a huge amount of temporary pandemic aid simply left the books. Trump’s first term also added a major amount to the national debt. It grew by about $7.5 trillion during those four years. Part of that came from the COVID crisis, when Congress and the administration approved support for households and businesses after the economy was hit hard. The fiscal year 2020 deficit reached $3.1 trillion, the largest annual shortfall in US history. Fiscal year 2021 brought the second-largest gap, covering the end of Trump’s first term and the start of Biden’s term, with the deficit topping $2.7 trillion. The CBO’s 2025 long-term budget outlook says federal interest spending will rise from about 3.1% of gross domestic product in fiscal year 2024 to about 5.3% of GDP by 2054. Your keys, your card. Spend without giving up custody and earn 8%+ yield on your balance with Ether.fi Cash.
