9 key moments that pushed the national debt higher in last two decades - Washington Post 4/26/23, 1:16 PM

See how the national debt

grew to $31 trillion

By Je& Stein
March 6 at 9:03 a.m.

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The United States owes $31 trillion. Washington now spends about $1 trillion
more each year than it collects in revenue, forcing the Treasury Department to
borrow to make up the difference. Which means the national debt is still
growing.

Without big changes, the debt will soon be bigger as a share of the economy than
when it peaked at the end of World War II. Most of that debt has accumulated
over the past 20 years. In 2001, the nation actually had a cash surplus — the
Treasury collected more in taxes than it spent on government services.

Since then, four presidents, 10 sessions of Congress and two wars have
contributed to the tide of red ink. Thanks in part to policy decisions made
generations ago, Social Security and Medicare are growing in cost, also adding to
the debt. Although interest payments remain low by historical standards as a
share of the nation’s economy, that could change quickly.

More recent decisions — budget-busting tax cuts, bipartisan spending deals and
staggering sums to cope with the coronavirus pandemic — have all forced the
nation to sink more deeply in debt. Here are nine key moments that show how
we got here.

The Bush tax cuts | June 7, 2001

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$5.7 trillion
Total debt

President George W. Bush signs the first of two major tax cuts into law, slashing
rates on ordinary income as well as on capital gains and dividends. In 2012, the
Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Bush tax cuts added roughly $1.5
trillion to the national debt. The majority of these tax cuts would later be made
permanent in a deal between congressional Republicans and President Barack
Obama, adding to their cost.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan | March 19, 2003

$6.5 trillion
Total debt

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States invades Iraq.
America would go on to spend roughly 20 years fighting wars in the Middle East,
leading to a surge in spending on the Pentagon and veterans. A Harvard analysis
has found that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan cost the nation between $4
trillion and $6 trillion.

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Prescription drug expansion | Jan. 1, 2006

$8.4 trillion
Total debt

Medicare Part D — a major expansion of Medicare that offered prescription drug

coverage to seniors — goes into effect nearly three years after being signed into
law by Bush. Republicans who controlled Congress did not pay for the popular,
but expensive, initiative.

2008 recession and response | Feb. 17, 2009

$11.1 trillion
Total debt

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A crisis in financial markets triggers the Great Recession, the worst downturn
since the Great Depression. This dramatically expands the national debt in two
ways: First, there is a sharp drop in tax collections. Second, there is a big jump
in spending on increased unemployment benefits and other programs to help
people weather the downturn. Congress and the Obama administration also
approved a major economic stimulus package. Brian Riedl, an economist at the
Manhattan Institute, estimates the Bush and Obama administrations together
enacted about $2 trillion in emergency measures to respond to the financial
crisis and the ensuing recession.

Obama-Republican deal to extend Bush tax cuts | Jan. 1, 2013

$16.8 trillion
Total debt

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire amid a sluggish recovery, Obama agrees to
make almost all of them permanent, extending tax relief for all but the very
richest Americans. Congressional Republicans, in turn, agree to extend some
economic stimulus measures. At the time, the Congressional Budget Office
estimated the deal would cost roughly $4 trillion over 10 years.

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The Trump tax cuts | Dec. 22, 2017

$20.5 trillion
Total debt

President Donald Trump signs a sprawling tax cut bill, centered on a plan to
reduce the rate paid by large U.S. corporations from 35 percent to 21 percent.
The law also cut taxes for most individual taxpayers. The Joint Committee on
Taxation of Congress estimated the measure would cost roughly $1.5 trillion
over 10 years. A later analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal
Budget, a Washington think tank, found the cumulative impact of the law could
be closer to $2.9 trillion if Congress votes to extend certain provisions, which are
set to expire in different years throughout this decade.

Bipartisan spending deals under Trump | Aug. 1, 2019

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$22.7 trillion
Total debt

Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree to ramp up federal spending as

Trump disregards Republican orthodoxy on shrinking the size of government. It
is the second such deal in two years. The spending helps fuel a strong labor
market but exacerbates budget deficits. The bills added a combined $2 trillion to
the national debt, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Congress spends trillions in coronavirus emergency response | Dec. 27, 2020

$27.7 trillion
Total debt

Trump signs into law the second of what will eventually be three major relief
packages approved by Congress in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The
first and most expensive is a bipartisan $3.4 trillion deal reached in March
2020, with the U.S. economy in a black hole. Another $900 billion follows in
December 2020. In 2021, Democrats under Biden approve an additional $1.9
trillion with no Republican support.

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The Biden economic agenda | Aug. 24, 2022

$31 trillion
Total debt

Biden announces a $400 billion plan to cancel student debt, which is quickly put
on hold while awaiting review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Biden
pushes Congress to spend more on veterans health, physical infrastructure, and
government agencies. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act spends more on an array
of other programs, including the Internal Revenue Service, but is projected to
slow borrowing by imposing higher taxes on businesses.

About this story

Debt totals are according to the Treasury Department via Federal Reserve Economic Data.
Amounts represent total debt at the end of the quarter for each moment, not on speciOc
dates. Graphics by Alyssa Fowers. Editing by Mike Madden, Karly Domb Sadof and Kate
Rabinowitz. Design and development by Talia Trackim. Copy editing by Anjelica Tan.

By Je& Stein
Je& Stein is the White House economics reporter for The Washington Post. He was a crime reporter for the

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Syracuse Post-Standard and, in 2014, founded the local news nonproOt the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York.
He was also a reporter for Vox. Twitter

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9 key moments that pushed the national debt higher in last two decades - Washington Post 4/26/23, 1:16 PM

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