The explanation for the rapid acceleration is the national debt comes down to two factors: First, presidents and congressional majorities of both major political parties have increased federal spending exponentially since day one of the 21st century, but especially so since the COVID-19 pandemic that killed more than one million Americans beginning in January 2020. Second, revenues have increased following major tax cuts in 2017 and again in 2025, but spending has still outpaced the added income to the government. The current fiscal year deficit is $1.7 trillion.
The problem is that spending only ever goes in one direction and every time there's an effort to return to baseline spending levels everybody screams bloody murder. Elon Musk's DOGE effort barely cut $150 billion from a $7 trillion budget and he was accused of starving kids.
When budget sequestration cut a merciless 2.6% from the federal budget back in 2013, Obama closed the White House to visitors in one of his typical performative displays of pique. There was still plenty of money for his vacations, though.
Covid is just the latest example of "never let a crisis go to waste." The government expanded like a balloon over both the first Trump and Biden administrations. That balloon never deflates.
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