Next president will face a $35 trillion national debt
By Sid Salter
Columnist
Six months ago, the gross national debt of the United States exceeded $35 trillion. That total
includes money the federal government owes itself, so many in government and finance rely on
the lower net national debt number of about $27 trillion if that makes anyone feel one iota better.
The national debt is everything our government owes to the public – think bonds and borrowed
money – and everything the government owes to itself – think Social Security and Medicare
obligations. It is debt held by the public and so-called “intragovernmental” debt that the
government owes to citizens through entitlement programs.
The highly respected and nonpartisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation explains the national debt
crisis in these ways: Our $35 trillion national debt is larger than the economies of China, Japan,
Germany, the United Kingdom and India – combined. It amounts to $231,000 per every U.S.
household or $104,303 for every American.
If every American household paid $1,000 per month toward the debt, it would take 19 years to
pay it off – so says the Peterson Foundation. Americans are paying $2.4 billion per day in
interest on the national debt.
Some six months away from a U.S. presidential election, neither the Trump-Vance campaign nor
the Harris-Walz campaign is talking about the national debt. It’s as if the existential economic
threat of the debt doesn’t exist for either Republicans or Democrats.
That’s because both major parties have fiscal culpability for the growth of the national debt. As
an economic yardstick, the U.S. federal debt to U.S. gross domestic product ratio in 1980 was
34.64%. Today, that debt-to-GDP ratio is 123%.
How did we get here? Take your bipartisan pick. All U.S. presidents since Herbert Hoover had
added to the existing national debt. The last U.S. president to reduce the national debt was Calvin
Coolidge in 1929.
Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, Republican President Herbert Hoover and Democrat
President Franklin Roosevelt saw the national debt rise through the conduct of World War I, the
Great Depression, The New Deal and World War II.

Republican President Ronald Reagan added $1.86 trillion through supply-side tax cuts and
increased defense spending. Fellow GOP President George W. Bush – dealing with the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks and a first-term recession, second-term
financial sector crisis and Hurricane Katrina, added $5.85 trillion to the national debt.
Democrat Barack Obama grew the national debt by $8.6 trillion over his two terms as president.
Rising healthcare expenses, through Medicare and Medicaid, have been the most substantial
drivers of a growing national debt in recent years. Obama also passed one major stimulus
package and implemented a late Bush stimulus package early in his first term.
More to the point of the 2024 presidential election, Republican President Donald Trump added
$7.8 trillion to the national debt mostly due to COVID pandemic stimulus and relief spending
and the 2020 recession.
Current President Joe Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris, continuing the Trump
policies on heavy pandemic and recession recovery spending, and through his own massive
American Recovery Plan, is set through those expenditures and the bipartisan infrastructure bill
to add the most of any single president to the national debt.
As has been the case for years, Social Security and Medicare entitlements as they exist today are
in deep trouble and fiscally unsustainable under current law while at the same time, 78 million
Baby Boomers hurtle toward retirement.
The two largest segments of mandatory federal spending are Social Security and Medicare,
estimated to be $3.4 trillion. That’s nearly 60% of all federal spending, according to the
Congressional Budget Office and the White House.
To read social media these days, national debt, deficits, spending strategies and policies,
priorities for how debt, national defense, healthcare, cybersecurity and other challenges are met
are of little importance. Our political parties aren’t raising those issues. Neither are our
candidates.
We have six months to ask better questions and insist on more direct answers from those who
wish to lead our country.

Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.