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On 18 August, the U.S. national debt officially reached $40.05 trillion after the Treasury Department reported borrowing $432.3 in July to pay its bills. It was the largest monthly shortfall in more than five years.
This fiscal year, federal revenue is projected to fall about $1.2 trillion short of expenses.
The debt has grown by $10 billion since March 2021 and has doubled in less than a decade, Reuters reported. It was $19.4 trillion in 2016.
Several factors have made the debt go higher faster.
The government borrowed about $5.6 trillion to shepherd the economy through the COVID War and pay related healthcare costs. Roughly 67million Baby Boomers are retiring, boosting claims for Social Security and Medicare benefits. Tariff refunds have added up to $100 billion so far.
Two tax refunds pushed by Donald Trump and enacted by a Republican Congress will add around $6.5 trillion to the debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The war in Iran, never in the federal budget, has cost an estimated $37.5 billion so far, a figure many say is far lower than what has actually been spent.
Inflation also has been a key factor. Rising prices have swollen federal expenses. Over five years in this decade, the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from 0.25 percent to more than 5 percent before easing it to its current 3.75 percent.
That has ballooned federal borrowing costs, which now are either the second or third largest government expense, by different estimates.
