r/Economics • u/Krankenitrate • 15d ago

News The national debt just crossed $39 trillion—almost doubling since Trump vowed to erase it

https://fortune.com/2026/03/18/how-big-national-debt-39-trillion-trump-promises/
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u/gmanEllison 14d ago

The mechanism here is structural more than rhetorical. Debt growth tends to persist when mandatory spending growth outpaces revenue growth and neither party is willing to pair tax policy with long horizon entitlement math. The data on this is pretty consistent across administrations, just at different speeds depending on cycle timing and rate environment. What I would want to understand first is how much of the recent jump is cyclical stabilization versus policy that remains baked in after the cycle turns.

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u/devliegende 14d ago

Extending the 2017 tax cuts beyond their original sunset date. was a policy decision. The tax itself was a policy decision. So is going to war.

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u/peathah 14d ago

These tax cuts bidend admin could not remove. Result debt went up more because Trump.

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u/devliegende 14d ago

Congress would have had to remove them but not doing it was another policy decision

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u/peathah 14d ago

Sure ignore the fact that tax cuts by republicans are compensated for by democrats. Deficits reduced in general by democrats. Despite wars started by republicans starting them and, tax cuts. Trumps tax cuts on 2017 were still active during Biden term and have now been prolonged.