Metastasizing national debt

Extracted Attributes

• Debt-to-GDP Ratio

  Approximately 120% of nominal GDP

• Debt per Household

  $284,914 (as of Dec 2025)

• Daily Debt Growth Rate

  $6.12 billion per day

• 2023 Trend Classification

  Worst Trend of the Year (All-In Podcast)

• Annual Debt Increase (2025)

  $2.23 trillion

• Total Gross Debt (Dec 2025)

  $38.40 trillion

• Average Interest Rate (Nov 2025)

  3.382%

Timeline

• The All-In Podcast names the metastasizing national debt as one of the worst trends of 2023 during the Bestie Awards. (Source: Document 47c5a1f9-3bf9-4d68-ae85-a92717b28f78)

  2023-12-31

• The IMF urges the United States to curb its deficit amid concerns over debt sustainability and tax cut plans. (Source: Deloitte Insights)

  2025-05-21

• The 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' is enacted, with long-term fiscal impacts analyzed by budget laboratories. (Source: Deloitte Insights)

  2025-07-04

• The average interest rate on total marketable national debt reaches 3.382%, up from 1.583% five years prior. (Source: JEC Senate)

  2025-11-01

• Total U.S. gross national debt hits $38.40 trillion, an increase of $11 trillion over a five-year period. (Source: JEC Senate)

  2025-12-03

• Projected date for the U.S. national debt to reach $39 trillion based on current growth rates. (Source: JEC Senate)

  2026-03-06

Age and health concerns about Joe Biden

Joe Biden was 78 years, 2 months of age when he assumed office as the president of the United States on January 20, 2021. At the time, he became both the oldest person to be inaugurated as U.S. president and the oldest sitting president in U.S. history. While Biden, a Democrat, campaigned for re-election in 2024, he suspended his campaign in July 2024 after being pressured to withdraw due to concerns about his age and mental acuity. Before and during Biden's presidency, American voters and Biden's predecessor and successor as president, Donald Trump of the Republican Party, expressed concerns about Biden's health and fitness for office. These concerns led Dean Phillips, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, to launch an unsuccessful Democratic primary challenge against Biden prior to the 2024 presidential election. In a February 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Justice, Robert Hur, a special counsel, opined that Biden's memory had "significant limitations"; the Biden administration dismissed the report as a "partisan hit job". Concerns about Biden's age and health intensified following his faltering performance in the June 2024 presidential debate against Trump, leading many Democratic Party lawmakers to call for Biden to end his campaign. After initially stating that he would remain in the race, Biden ultimately withdrew on July 21, 2024; he immediately endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to replace him as the party's presidential nominee. In the weeks and months following Biden's June 2024 debate against Trump, media outlets reported on efforts that had been made to manage and conceal Biden's age- and health-related limitations during his presidency. Harris went on to lose to Trump in the general election. At the time his term as president ended on January 20, 2025, Biden was 82 years and 2 months old. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May 2025 after a routine checkup revealed urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule.

Web Search Results

• Understanding the National Debt | U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data

  national debt is the accumulation of this borrowing along with associated interest owed to the investors who purchased these securities. As the federal government experiences reoccurring deficits, which is common, the national debt grows. [...] The Growing National Debt [...] The national debt is the amount of money the federal government has borrowed to cover the outstanding balance of expenses incurred over time. In a given fiscal year (FY), when spending (ex. money for roadways) exceeds revenue (ex. money from federal income tax), a budget deficit results. To pay for this deficit, the federal government borrows money by selling marketable securities such as Treasury bonds, bills, notes,floating rate notes, and Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS). The

• National Debt Hits $38.40 Trillion, Increased $2.23 Trillion Year over ...

  As of December 3, 2025, total gross national debt is $38.40 trillion. Relative to one year ago, total gross national debt is $2.23 trillion higher; relative to five years ago, it is $11.00 trillion higher. Over the past year, the rate of increase averaged $6.12 billion per day, $255.04 million per hour, $4.25 million per minute, or $70,843.42 per second. [...] The increase in gross national debt over the past year amounts to $6,566.84 per person or $16,574.81 per household while total gross national debt amounts to $112,881 per person or $284,914 per household. Assuming the average daily rate of growth over the past three years continues, the U.S. will reach $39 trillion by approximately March 06, 2026. At that rate, an increase of another trillion dollars would be reached in approximately 157 days. [...] As of November 2025, the average interest rate on the total marketable national debt is 3.382 percent. One year ago, it was 3.355 percent; five years ago, it was 1.583 percent. This means that, today, the U.S. is paying more just in interest payments than it was even one year ago, and significantly more than it was five years ago.

• The Rising Burden of U.S. Government Debt | Econofact

  The current high cost of servicing the national debt is partly a reflection of the historically large size of the federal government debt. Government debt is the sum of current and accumulated past budget deficits as well as the cumulative cost of financing those deficits. There has been a notable increase in US government debt since the economic downturn of the Great Recession, which required increased federal spending and lowered tax revenues and was followed by the pandemic shock. In [...] ### What this Means: [...] Debt and Deficits Share Facebook X / Twitter Bluesky LinkedIn Copy Link # The Rising Burden of U.S. Government Debt By Daniel Bergstresser·June 19, 2024 Brandeis University ### The Issue:

• The Impact of Public Debt on Economic Growth: What the Empirical ...

  Diamond, P. A. (1965) “National Debt in a Neoclassical Growth Model.” American Economic Review 55 (5): 1126–50. Furman, Jason, and Laurence Summers. "A Reconsideration of Fiscal Policy in the Era of Low Interest Rates." Brookings Institution, 2020. Reinhart, Carmen M., and Kenneth S. Rogoff. "Growth in a Time of Debt." American Economic Review 100, no. 2 (2010), 573-578. Salmon, Jack. "The Impact of Public Debt on Economic Growth." Cato Journal 41, no. 3 (2021), 487-509. [...] ##### Synthesizing the Findings of the Literature

• Climbing US government debt casts a fiscal shadow

  3. Peter G. Peterson Foundation, “America’s national debt challenge,” accessed Sept. 25, 2025; Mike Dolan, “Shrieks and shrugs meet alarming US debt pile,” Reuters, June 23, 2025; Sam Fleming and Claire Jones, “IMF urges US to curb deficit as Trump tax cut plan stirs debt fears,” Financial Times, May 21, 2025. 4. The Budget Lab, “Long-term impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as enacted on July 4, 2025,” July 30, 2025. [...] US$36 trillion and counting—that’s the total outstanding federal government debt in the United States.1 It’s nearly 20% higher than the nation’s nominal GDP and larger than the combined output of the next four biggest economies.2 Unsurprisingly, concerns around debt sustainability are mounting—among both investors and onlookers, both domestically and abroad—given the role of US Treasury bonds as the world’s primary safe asset.3 These worries come at a time when US trade protectionism is also [...] government debt (worth US$4.6 trillion). This may lead to three major risks.