Topic of the Week: National Debt Surpasses $40 Trillion

Last week, the United States’ outstanding debt surpassed $40 trillion. Many economists have warned that the country will suffer a financial crisis if the government continues to spend more money than it collects. Our analysts rated media coverage in our Topic of the Week.

A video from PBS NewsHour gives an overview of the government’s financial situation. Host Anna Nawaz and correspondent Lisa Desjardins discuss how the country has amassed so much debt. Desjardins warns that neither Congress nor the White House is taking steps to address the core of the problem and that a “crisis of leadership” is partly to blame for the situation. Analysts found the reporting to be a “mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “middle” bias.

An article from the NBC News website focuses on why the government borrows money and why rising interest rates on U.S. debt are “turning into a problem for the entire economy.” It explains why investors are worried about the bond market: “When the U.S. borrows money, it sells bonds, also called Treasurys … if the government starts to flood the market with bonds to pay for services, it risks tipping already stubborn inflation higher.” The article explains that when the government’s borrowing costs rise, so do costs that affect consumers, such as mortgage rates. The article was rated as “a mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “middle” bias.

An article from National Review looks at “The Causes of Our Future Debt Crisis,” looking into “the not-so-bright future to identify what will cause the debt to multiply many times over in a few short decades.” It looks at the “too optimistic” numbers provided by the Congressional Budget Office and says that the country is projected to spend more on interest than any other budget item by 2056. A bigger problem, it says, is future spending, which the article describes as “terrifying.” Shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare alone, it says, are expected to “make up the entirety of long-term deficits … There can be no answer to the debt problem without reforming these twin entitlements.” Analysts rated the article as “analysis” with a “skews right” bias because the author blames Social Security and Medicare costs while ignoring “other new and existing pain points of America’s debt.”

Common Dreams, however, says to “Thank Idiot, Greedy Republicans If You’re Upset With $40 Trillion in US Debt.” Its article says the debt is “almost entirely due to Republican tax cuts and their inept management of the economy.” Writer Dean Baker compares deficits left by Democrat presidents vs. Republican presidents, stating that “Every Democratic president of the last half century has left with a deficit that was lower … than the one they came in with, except Obama, who left it unchanged.” Every Republican president, he says, leaves office with a “considerably higher” deficit than he inherited. The “big failure,” he says, is President Trump: “If there is a run on the dollar, and interest rates soar higher, it is far more likely to be the result of Trump’s corruption and incompetence than the high debt.” Analysts found this article to be analysis and opinion; however, the insults and vilification of Trump and Republicans lowered its reliability score to the category of “unfair persuasion” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

On the Pondering Politics YouTube channel, host Jessiah Eberlin calls the $40 trillion debt “staggering” and says Trump is responsible for 25-30% of it — the opposite of his campaign promise to eliminate America’s national debt. Eberlin plays a clip of former Republican Joe Scarborough, host of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” blaming Trump for the debt. Eberlin reads extensively from a New York Times article and calls DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), led by Elon Musk, “a colossal failure of epic proportions.” He criticizes Trump’s tariffs, $60 billion of which had to be repaid after they were found illegal. “You didn’t get your money back…Walmart and other retailers and Amazon, the places that you had to pay those increased costs because of Trump, they got their money back, but you’re still in a hole.” Eberlin reads reaction posts from X and says Trump is “making money off us, off our backs, off the presidency while not only causing you all to pay more with his inflationary crisis, but also just putting the nation collectively in a greater debt that he promised he’d eliminate.” Analysts found the video’s headline (“Trump just caused a national emergency…”) hyperbolic and said the host includes information critical only of Trump and the Republican Party while ignoring other causes of the debt. The video was rated as “selective or incomplete” with a “hyper-partisan left” bias.

Finally, an article from Daily Wire looks at how the national debt has risen from $1 trillion during Reagan’s presidency to $40 trillion today. “Since the Nixon administration, federal spending and the national debt have virtually increased under each administration,” it says. The article includes comments only from Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who favors reducing federal spending. Analysts noted the article mentions that President Trump tasked DOGE with reducing $1 trillion in spending and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with raising $1 trillion in additional revenue, but it does not discuss the outcome of those efforts. They also found a graph included with the article to be misleading because it’s described as data that depicts federal spending across presidential administrations, but it shows national debt. The article was rated as “contains misleading info” with a “strong right” bias.

Want to see if you agree with our analysts? Follow along with our weekly Topic of the Week exercise by visiting our website. New Topics of the Week are posted each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with our analysts. Learn more here.

Beth Heldebrandt is Director of Communications at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.