The US government’s massive pile of debt is reaching fresh heights as a new fiscal year begins.
The Treasury Department’s Debt to the Penny database shows the national debt rose from $35.464673929171 trillion on September 30th to $35.668947367182 trillion on October 1st – the first day of fiscal year 2025.
That’s a jump of $204.273438011 billion in a span of just 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the Treasury says the US budget deficit reached $1.897 trillion by the end of August, one month before the fiscal year closed. The gap between the government’s total spending and its total revenue increased 24% from August of 2023, when it was $1.525 trillion.
In a recent report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the growing deficit is due to a number of factors including rising Social Security, Medicare and Department of Defense expenses, as well as significantly higher interest payments on public debt due to high interest rates.
“Spending for Social Security benefits rose by $98 billion (or 8%) because of increases in the average benefit payment (stemming mostly from cost-of-living adjustments) and in the number of beneficiaries…
Medicare outlays increased, on net, by $76 billion (or 10%) because of increased enrollment and higher payment rates for services….
Spending by the Department of Defense was $52 billion (or 7%) greater than in the same period last fiscal year; the largest increases were for operation and maintenance and for research and development.”
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