this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
552 points (99.8% liked)

politics

30907 readers
1773 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor.
  3. No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in an account ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be permanently banned.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting, or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports, or violate the code of conduct, will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users. The reason(s) behind moderator action(s) are publicly available through the Modlog.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to slash the national deficit and curb debt during his second term, but a sobering assessment of the nation’s financial health by one of the federal government’s premier fiscal watchdogs suggests Trump 2.0’s policies have not only collectively pushed the federal deficit significantly higher, but put the country on an unsustainable path.

In its latest budget and economic outlook, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency, revised its cumulative deficit projection for the 2026–2035 period upward by $1.4 trillion compared with its forecast from just a year ago.

“Our budget projections continue to indicate that the fiscal trajectory is not sustainable,” CBO Director Phillip Swagel said in a statement, noting the agency’s latest projections. Under laws passed in Trump’s first year back in office, the national debt in 2030 will surpass the historic high of 106% of GDP, which it reached in 1946. Meanwhile, the balance of Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2032, one year earlier than the CBO projected last January.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Deficit spending has historically worked out well because the US has been able to borrow at a rate lower than inflation, making it actually cheaper to borrow money and pay it off later. The national debt isn't much of a concern unless we tank our credit and reputation.

So it's a huge fucking concern.

[–] MartianHills@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My understanding is that our debt burden now equals our GDP with interest payments about 1 trillion dollars annually. Looks like we're headed into a debt spiral with an economy stalling. Not an economist, but it seems like a worst-case scenario.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Thats okay, we're also tariffing the fuck out of everyone and alienating any and every trading partner to the point they are seeking to replace us with alternatives.

Surely that will fix everything.

[–] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Yep. Everyone is in the "get out" - phase right now. Tariffs was a weapon for economic war against another country. Trump uses it on allies. Your president and vice president, litterally calling EU blood suckers, and blames us for your horrors. Even though we litterally only bought american tech, infrastructure, militiary equipment, entertainment, etc. To please the united states for keeping us safe. Now you say we gave you Nothing back. This is not a great way of treating trading partners.

[–] MartianHills@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah. The US will find itself on the outside looking in while global trade resets. Fast track to a pariah state.