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As U.S. Debt Hits a Worrying Milestone, Washington Barely Notices
New York Times ^ | May 7, 2026 | Tony Romm

Posted on 05/07/2026 12:53:26 PM PDT by Miami Rebel

The U.S. government learned last week that it may have reached an unfortunate milestone: The size of its debt surpassed the nation’s total economic output.

It was a striking imbalance, according to early estimates, one that the country has experienced only in rare circumstances — briefly during the pandemic, and in the aftermath of World War II. But the development barely seemed to register in the nation’s capital, where few policymakers bothered to acknowledge the latest warning sign about the government’s poor fiscal health.

The root of the problem is well-documented and widely known. U.S. debt has soared in recent years because of a mismatch between federal spending and tax revenue, one complicated by a rapidly aging population, which has driven up costs across government.

For economists, the fear is that these conditions are inching the United States toward a fiscal crisis, one in which its debt is so great that the country can’t easily afford to pay the rising interest on it. But their warnings have long gone unheeded in Washington, calcifying the strains on the government’s balance sheet in ways that President Trump’s agenda is expected to exacerbate.

Despite winning a congressional majority, Republicans have cut little in spending over the past year. With the few savings they did achieve, they put that money toward offsetting a fraction of the cost of Mr. Trump’s tax cuts, which are still expected to add more than $4 trillion to the debt in the coming years.

Those fiscal risks aren’t yet fully realized in the total federal debt held by the public, which topped about $31.26 trillion in March, federal records show. By comparison, the nation’s nominal gross domestic product, a measure of its output using current dollars, reached $31.21 trillion in the 12-month period ending in March.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: 123oclock4oclockzot; concern; concerntroll; debt; deficit; inflation; multiplenicks; nationaldebt; randpaulsucks; randspam; tds; tdsposter; usdebt
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Things are so bad that Fox News has stopped showing the National Debt Clock.
1 posted on 05/07/2026 12:53:26 PM PDT by Miami Rebel
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To: Miami Rebel

You need to see the rktman debt clock. 😂😂😂😂😂💥


2 posted on 05/07/2026 12:55:01 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? On hold! Enlisted USN 1967 proudly. 🚫💉! 🇮🇱🙏! Winning currently!)
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To: Miami Rebel

Let’s remember the a**hole President Not Elected, Joe Biden (spit). Opened the gates of free money to illegal aliens. We should be raiding the Democrat coffers from now until the next election in retribution of that act.


3 posted on 05/07/2026 1:00:17 PM PDT by RideForever (Damn, another dangling par .....)
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To: Miami Rebel

> U.S. debt has soared in recent years… <

Really, New York Times? Just in recent years? So I guess it’s all Trump’s fault.

Nope. It’s the fault of every D and R president since the end of WW2. And the fault of every D and R Congress since the end of WW2.

A pox on them. Every single one of them.


4 posted on 05/07/2026 1:02:12 PM PDT by Leaning Right
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To: Miami Rebel
Oh, tell us, Mr. Diligent Reporter Romm, how many times you wrote an article even remotely like this during Biden's term, during Obama's term, during Clinton's term.

Yes, the debt wasn't what it is now but it was climbing at levels never seen before and, yet, the NYT saw nothing alarming.

5 posted on 05/07/2026 1:04:36 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: Lizavetta
Yes, the debt wasn't what it is now but it was climbing at levels never seen before and, yet, the NYT saw nothing alarming.


6 posted on 05/07/2026 1:09:09 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Miami Rebel

It was absolutely fine during the Biden administration. That Trump...


7 posted on 05/07/2026 1:20:17 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Leaning Right
> Nope. It’s the fault of every D and R president since the end of WW2. And the fault of every D and R Congress since the end of WW2.

No just FDR, this was inevitable after he got Social Security passed.

I do blame the following Presidents and Congress from pretending SSN/Medicaid is anything but a massive unconstitutional pyramid scheme which will eventually bankrupt the nation and force us to give up our military.

8 posted on 05/07/2026 1:52:09 PM PDT by SecondAmendment (Political insight on loan from Rush Limbaugh)
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To: Miami Rebel

Hooverville


9 posted on 05/07/2026 2:04:29 PM PDT by Varsity Flight ( "War by 🙏 the prophesies set before you." ) I Timothy 1:18. Nazarite warriors. 10.5.6.5 These Days)
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To: Miami Rebel

Since when does the NYTimes care about our debt?


10 posted on 05/07/2026 2:07:45 PM PDT by lucky american (Had enough yet?)
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To: Miami Rebel

Not to worry.

Whether there is any gold in Fort Knox may not be a settled question, but the presses printing money are still working fine.

Although that may be just for show as most transactions have nothing to do with the transfer of printed currency.


11 posted on 05/07/2026 2:13:55 PM PDT by Biblebelter
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To: lucky american

Nobody cares, literally nobody.


12 posted on 05/07/2026 2:27:43 PM PDT by EvelynMcHale (vroom, vroom, mothertrucker)
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To: lucky american

Do you?


13 posted on 05/07/2026 2:35:29 PM PDT by Miami Rebel (RE)
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To: Sacajaweau

The corollary is that if you have no problem with the current national debt of $39 trillion, you had no problem with Biden’s debt of $35.5 trillion.


14 posted on 05/07/2026 2:46:44 PM PDT by Miami Rebel (RE)
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To: Miami Rebel

Tax cuts historically ring in revenue. SPENDING causes the debt.


15 posted on 05/07/2026 4:59:08 PM PDT by TalBlack (Their god is government. Prepare for a religious war.https://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=4322961%2)
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To: Miami Rebel

They would notice if a million of us showed up on the same scheduled day on the national mall saying stop the spending.


16 posted on 05/07/2026 5:37:51 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact. Progressivism is a suicide pact.)
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Hey hey
ho ho
this national debt
has
got to go!

Hey hey
ho ho
this national debt
has
got to go!


17 posted on 05/07/2026 5:39:22 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact. Progressivism is a suicide pact.)
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To: RideForever

They were attempting to bankrupt and crash the USA as the Western reserve currency with Samantha Power at USAID funding every NGO and every communist dream imaginable. The USA has proven to be far more resilient than expected. (I contribute their failure to the prayers of believers rebuking it daily.)

Their intention was/is to tokenize everything onto a blockchain with a global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and mandatory digital ID. All done by the machinations of the installed WEF sycophants.

A totalitarian digital control grid but now also with AI ‘fairly’ managing all resources for the entire planet, in their minds now succeeding where all Communist attempts prior have failed. Soon arriving right out of Revelation Chapter 13.


18 posted on 05/07/2026 6:50:53 PM PDT by captmar-vell
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