US debt hits $31.26 trillion, exceeds annual GDP

The last two times the United States owed more than its annual economic output, the country was either fighting a world war or shutting down due to a pandemic. As of March, it's happened again — this time without an emergency to point to.

Treasury debt held by the public reached roughly $31.26 trillion, narrowly outpacing the $31.21 trillion in nominal GDP for the trailing 12 months, according to Tony Romm in The New York Times, citing analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Capitol Hill barely flinched. Over the past year, Republicans have passed tax cuts projected to add more than $4 trillion to the debt, approved a $1.5 trillion Pentagon increase — the largest such hike since the Cold War — and gone to war with Iran. Despite controlling Congress, they have cut almost nothing. White House spokesman Kush Desai told the paper that Washington's fiscal position has actually improved under Trump, crediting reductions in "waste, fraud, and abuse." The administration is also about to start mailing refund checks for tariff revenue Trump collected before federal courts ruled those tariffs illegal.

A few voices on the right are starting to sound worried. House Budget Committee chair Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said both parties are "sleepwalking off of a cliff." William McBride, an economist at the right-leaning Tax Foundation, told the Times the new tax cuts may have "sped up the inevitable" by a couple of years.

Previously:

• Musk promised $2 trillion in cuts; spending went up
• Iran war has cost $25bn so far, admits Pentagon. The real cost is closer to $50bn.
• Elon Musk's Federal cost cutting analysis is a smokescreen