Total US debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing as ballooning costs for social safety-net programmes and interest payments far outstrip revenues held back by tax cuts.
The Treasury's latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, including Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intra-governmental holdings of $7.782 trillion.
The federal government's debt has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion.
Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during frantic borrowing to fund COVID-19 pandemic responses under President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, alongside long-running tax-and-spending imbalances.
Mandatory outlays
Long bond yields hit their highest levels in nearly two decades as investors demanded greater compensation in the face of hefty bond issuance.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a doubling of buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation.
The Treasury reported a $432 billion deficit for July — the fourth-highest monthly deficit in US history — as outlays for Social Security and Medicare continued to climb.
Another $1.1 trillion pays interest on US borrowing. In the first 10 months of the 2026 fiscal year, interest costs have eclipsed Medicare healthcare outlays to become the second-largest item in the federal budget, behind Social Security.
