U.S. national debt has exceeded $40 trillion
As of the close of business on August 18, the U.S. national debt stood at $40.04 trillion. Fortune reported this, citing data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office reported that, due to significant budget deficits, the U.S. Treasury spends about $3 billion a day on interest payments on the debt. From October 2025, when fiscal year 2026 began, through July 2026, these expenses totaled $963 billion.
The U.S. public debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 120%. Michael Peterson, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Peterson Foundation, told Fortune that, in his estimation, large-scale government borrowing raises interest rates and may increase household expenses on mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, as well as fuel inflation.
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According to a July survey by the Peterson Foundation, 94% of American voters are more likely to support a candidate who has a plan to address the debt problem. This was the response from 95% of Democrats, 92% of independent voters, and 94% of Republicans.
At the time of this Fortune article’s publication, the yield on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds exceeded 5%, while that on 10-year bonds stood at 4.6%. Nancy Vanden Houten, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, noted that mandatory spending is growing the fastest, particularly for Social Security, Medicare, and interest payments on the debt.
According to estimates by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the Social Security trust fund’s reserves could be depleted in less than eight years, and Medicare’s reserves in less than seven years.
