Despite Donald Trump’s promises to boost the US economy, analysts have recorded an extremely high public debt. During recent years, the indicator has been confidently rising, hitting new highs. Moreover, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a more rapid advance. According to estimates provided by the Congressional Budget Office, in this financial year, the federal debt is projected to reach or exceed 100% of US gross domestic product.
Just a year ago, economists predicted that the federal debt would reach this reading by 2030. However, huge budget expenditures, various programs to support the economy amid the virus-inflicted crisis as well as Trump's ambitions and sanctions policy have contributed to the debt growth and allowed the US to set this record ahead of time.
For some countries, such figures could be really shocking. However, US history saw even graver problems. For example, in 1946, the country’s public debt stood at 106% after years of financing military operations during the Second World War. Nowadays, the US authorities explain the soaring debt by the rapid spread of the coronavirus and pandemic-induced recession. However, the reason for the advancing debt in healthy economic conditions is still unknown.
In fact, even before the coronavirus pandemic, the US saw a significant structural gap between the government’s spending and its revenue from taxes. In other words, the irrational allocation of funds is the main driver of the growing debt.
