As of July 25, 2025, the United States national debt stood at $36,721,531,033,602.97. ThatÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s thirty-six trillion, seven hundred twenty-one billion, five hundred thirty-one million, thirty-three thousand, six hundred two dollars and ninety-seven cents. ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s a number so vast, so abstract, that most Americans canÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t even comprehend it. But we should. Because behind that number lies a haunting ledger, not just of what we owe, but of what weÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ve squandered.
This didnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t happen overnight. Nor did it happen, as some would have you believe, simply because we tried to help the poor or educate children. The bulk of this debt was built, layer by layer, under the watch of those who called themselves fiscal conservatives, all while cutting taxes for the wealthy, launching endless wars, and refusing to pay for the very things they promised. It was Ronald Reagan who first broke the barrier of the trillion-dollar deficit, an unthinkable threshold at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that debt would total $3.78 trillion today. Reagan may have preached small government, but his administration opened the floodgates.
Then came George W. Bush, who inherited a rare budget surplus from President Bill Clinton, the last president, along with Lyndon Johnson, to leave office with a balanced budget. Bush not only squandered that surplus, but dug a deeper hole with two unfunded wars, massive tax cuts, and a prescription drug plan that, while politically popular, was never paid for. The debt grew not because of spending on everyday Americans, but because of giveaways to those who already had the most.
Donald Trump followed the same pattern but with even greater abandon. His 2017 tax cuts, tilted heavily toward corporations and the ultra-rich, cost the country nearly $2 trillion, even before the pandemic. Once COVID arrived, trillions more flowed into emergency packages ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” some of it necessary, much of it mismanaged. The stock market rebounded, but millions of Americans never recovered. TrumpÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s first four years added $8 trillion. The Office of Management and Budget predicts TrumpÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s tax cuts will add another $3.4 trillion.
And while weÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™re often told that Democrats are the party of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œbig spending,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ the historical record suggests otherwise. Of the 12 major U.S. recessions since World War II, eleven began under Republican presidents. Only one occurred during a Democratic administration and even that, under Jimmy Carter, was largely driven by global oil shocks and monetary tightening, not reckless domestic policy. Time and again, trickle-down economics and deregulation have created short-term profits and long-term pain. The cycle is as predictable as it is preventable.
And so we find ourselves here, staring at that enormous number ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” $36,721,531,033,602.97 ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” and wondering how we got so little for it.
The real tragedy isnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t the debt itself. ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s the opportunities lost. That money could have transformed this country.
Imagine if we had used even a fraction of it to modernize our infrastructure. Every road, bridge, and tunnel in the United States could be new, safe, and climate-resilient. Instead, we drive over potholes and through flood-prone valleys while Congress debates the definition of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œinfrastructure.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
Think of what it would mean if we had guaranteed decent housing for every American. We could have ended homelessness, rebuilt aging housing stock, and lifted millions out of poverty. But the funds went elsewhere, to speculative markets, foreign contractors, and offshore tax shelters.
Universal health care, long treated as a pipe dream in America, could have been fully funded. We could have ensured that no one dies from a treatable illness or goes bankrupt from a hospital stay. Instead, we remain the only wealthy nation where life expectancy falls and people ration insulin.
We could have erased student debt and made college and vocational education free. We could have created a workforce ready for the future: engineers, teachers, nurses, electricians, caregivers. But we chained young people to interest rates while subsidizing billionairesÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ private jets.
We could have expanded broadband to every rural and urban community, bringing jobs, telemedicine, and education to places long left behind. We could have overhauled our energy grid, led the world in clean power, and confronted climate change with urgency. We could have prepared for wildfires, hurricanes, and pandemics, not with press conferences, but with real plans.
Instead, we cut taxes for those who needed them least. We turned a blind eye to the crumbling schools and poisoned water systems. We spent hundreds of billions on military contractors, border walls, and surveillance systems. And every time someone asked, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œHow will we pay for it?ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ the answer was simple: We already did. We just paid for the wrong things.
It didnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t have to be this way. We are not a poor country. We are a mismanaged one. The national debt is not just a matter of dollars and cents, itÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s a reflection of our values. And for far too long, weÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™ve valued profit over people, slogans over solutions, and short-term political wins over long-term human flourishing.
The American people were told they had to choose: either dignity or affordability, either justice or jobs, either survival or solvency. But these were false choices. We could have had both, had we made better decisions. Had we prioritized the common good over the accumulation of private wealth. Had we treated government not as a piggy bank for the privileged, but as a tool to lift all of us together.
ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s not too late to change course. But it starts with telling the truth about how we got here and who benefitted. The deficit is not a mystery. ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s a record of our misplaced trust, our political cowardice, and our refusal to imagine something better.
We need not be a nation where $36 trillion buys so little for so few. We can still choose to build a country where that kind of money reflects the strength of our infrastructure, the health of our people, the education of our children, and the security of our future.
