See how the national debt grew to more than $36 trillion

Washington Post

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See how the national debt grew to more than $36 trillion
The United States owes more than $36 trillion. Washington now spends close to $2 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 major 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, when 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.
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 eight key moments that show how we got here.
The Bush tax cuts | June 7, 2001
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating June 2001 when the Bush tax cuts were passed.
Tax cuts signed
into law
$5.7 trillion
Total debt before the Bush tax cuts
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
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating March 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq.
Start of war in Iraq
$6.5 trillion
Total debt before the war in Iraq
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.
Prescription drug expansion | Jan. 1, 2006
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating January 2006, when Medicare Part D was enacted.
Medicare Part D enacted
$8.4 trillion
Total debt when Medicare Part D went into effect
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.
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Great Recession and response | Dec. 1, 2008
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating December 2008, the start of the Great Recession.
Start of Great Recession
$10.1 trillion
Total debt at the start of the Great Recession
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
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating January 2013, when Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts.
Tax cuts extended
$16.8 trillion
Total debt when cuts were extended
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.
Trump tax cuts | Dec. 22, 2017
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating December 2017, when President Donald Trump's tax cuts were passed.
Tax cuts passed
$20.5 trillion
Total debt when cuts were enacted
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 congressional Joint Committee on Taxation 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.
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Coronavirus emergency response | March 14, 2020
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating March 2020, when the coronavirus emergency was declared.
Coronavirus emergency declaration
$27.7 trillion
Total debt at the start of the pandemic
Trump signs into law the first and most expensive of what will eventually be three major relief packages approved by Congress in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The first is a bipartisan $3.4 trillion deal reached in March 2020, with the U.S. economy in a black hole. An additional $900 billion follows in December 2020. In 2021, Democrats under President Biden approve an additional $1.9 trillion with no Republican support.
Biden, second Trump term | Aug. 16, 2022
A chart of the national debt from 1995 through 2024, with a line indicating August 2022, when the Inflation Reduction Act passed.
Inflation Reduction Act passed
$30.9 trillion
Total debt when the Inflation Reduction Act is passed
Biden successfully pushed Congress to spend more on veterans' health, physical infrastructure and government agencies. Biden's Inflation Reduction Act included some provisions designed to reduce the deficit, such as giving more funding to the Internal Revenue Service, but ultimately did very little to reduce the deficit and may have increased it, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank. Spending agreements between Biden and House Republicans do restrain budget growth slightly.
Now, congressional Republicans and the Trump administration are this year moving forward with a plan that would increase federal deficits by more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years — and possibly more than $5 trillion.
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