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The Latest Breaking News from CBO

‘I am certain’: Harvard policy expert warns the true cost of the Iran war to U.S. taxpayers will exceed $1 trillion

Linda Bilmes, along with economist Joseph Stiglitz, previously calculated the true cost of the 2003 Iraq war was at least fourfold greater than initially projected.

Fortune · Apr 15

The U.S. government is spending $88 billion a month in interest on national debt, equal to its spending on both defense and education combined

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, called on lawmakers to “ultimately fix the broken process that got us into this mess.”

Fortune · Apr 9

The ticking time bomb buried in Trump’s 2027 budget

$7.8 trillion in extra revenue, GDP growing at 3%, vanishing deficits, and a 42% defense hike—to skeptics Trump’s math just isn’t adding up.

Fortune · Apr 9

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read the most diverse news in one place.

Trump, the $39 trillion national debt, rosy growth assumptions and the question of 'a sustainable path'

The White House is betting 3% GDP growth will shrink the deficit—but faster growth would likely drive up interest costs on the $39 trillion national debt.

Fortune · Apr 7

Trump's Call for a $1.5 Trillion Military Budget Is Irresponsible, Wasteful, and Unrealistic

The proposal is "an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars and would make Americans less, not more, safe." Thankfully, Congress is unlikely to adopt it.

Reason · Apr 3

‘There is no silver lining in this trajectory’: Budget watchdog warns of financial, inflation, or currency crisis due to $39 trillion national debt

“It took decades to get us into this hole, and it will take a concerted effort to get out of it.”

Fortune · Mar 27

Washington ignores America's fiscal cliff

Deficits are at levels unseen outside major crises.

Axios · Mar 22

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The national debt just crossed $39 trillion—almost doubling since Trump vowed to erase it

Budget experts agree on one thing. The debt is on an "unsustainable" trajectory.

Fortune · Mar 18

Rayburn building deemed at risk in push for major funding boost - Roll Call

The largest House office building is at risk of “catastrophic system failure,” the architect of the Capitol is set to warn Congress.

Roll Call · Mar 17

A 'debt spiral,' before a fiscal crisis: interest on the national debt will be growing faster than GDP in just 5 years, think tank warns

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget sees a critical threshold crossing by 2031—and the consequences could be nearly impossible to reverse.

Fortune · Mar 16

The national debt isn't $39 trillion. One economist says it's actually $100 trillion

"It's not a Ponzi scheme," Penn Wharton's Kent Smetters explained to Fortune. "It's a shell game."

Fortune · Mar 13

'The conflict in Iran demonstrates why we need to keep our national debt at a reasonable level': think tank sees economic emergency around the corner

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warns that war spending could tip into a fiscal crisis — and it's calling for a pre-built escape plan.

Fortune · Mar 13

Trump's Iran war could hike national debt by $65 billion in 60 days, while tariffs add another crushing blow

The Pentagon told lawmakers that they estimated the cost of the war exceeded $11.3 billion in the first 6 days of the conflict—and that didn't even include all of the pre-strike costs.

Fortune · Mar 12

Trump’s Iran war is costing American taxpayers $1 billion a day as the national debt spirals out of control

Should the Iran war drag on for even several more weeks, the damage to America’s fragile finances will prove substantial.

Fortune · Mar 11

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Fortune · Mar 10

The U.S. borrowed $50 billion a week for the past five months, finds the CBO: 'Our fiscal problems will not solve themselves'

"We need policymakers to come together, agree to reduce deficits ... and put our national debt on a downward sustainable path as a share of the economy."

We Got This Covered · Mar 9

America gets a dire warning – Social Security trust fund for retirees could run out earlier than expected

A looming retirement crisis is on the horizon, and almost no one is talking about it.

Fortune · Mar 6

CBO highlights the good news in Trump’s lost tariff revenue hiking the deficit by $2 trillion: Lower inflation and unemployment—and higher GDP

In the past year, tariffs were, at least partly, responsible for 166,000 lost blue-collar jobs and $1,700 in annual increased costs for American households.

Fortune · Mar 6

The Treasury may need to borrow extra $1.6 trillion to cover the hole left by tariff ruling, says CBO—adding $400 billion in debt interest by 2036

In total, deficits post-ruling will be $2 trillion larger than they were before the Supreme Court decision.

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Roll Call · Mar 3

Democrats offer farm bill amendments to roll back SNAP changes

Democrats want to roll back controversial changes to the food stamp program enacted in the 2025 reconciliation law.

Fortune · Mar 2

Interest on the $38.8 trillion national debt has tripled since 2020, and it already costs taxpayers more than defense and Medicaid

Here’s when Medicare falls below interest costs, according to CBO projections.

Fortune · Mar 1

Why Ray Dalio, Scott Bessent and others are rallying around a '3% solution' to the national debt

Bipartisan consensus is building in support of lowering the gulf between revenues and outlays to 3% of GDP.

Fortune · Feb 26

Come 2030, the U.S. deficit will be worth 5.9% of GDP—more than the outlays for Social Security, and equal to spending on major health programs

Come 2030, the annual deficit will be worth roughly 5.9% of GDP, on par with provisions set aside for health and Social Security programs, and well ahead of calls to reduce deficits to 3% of GDP.

Fortune · Feb 25

Trump vows, ‘We will always protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,’ but his signature tax cuts shortened their life span

The president also said America is “bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before,” thanks to his One Big Beautiful Bill.

Fortune · Feb 24

‘The state of our union is more indebted than ever’: Budget watchdog continues war of words with Trump White House

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget took heat over the weekend, with Scott Bessent saying its leader “should be ashamed.”

Fortune · Feb 23

In less than a year, Trump erased 12 years of solvency for the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A

The CBO estimates that benefit reductions would start at 8% in 2040 and steadily climb to a 10% cut by 2056.

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