2026年8月19日 20:17:48 UTC / 路透社
综述
- 特朗普两届白宫任期内，美国国债增长了11.6万亿美元
- 拜登四年任期内，国债规模增加了8.4万亿美元
- 减税举措限制了财政收入，同时社会安全网支出与利息成本不断攀升
- 特朗普对债券市场波动不以为意，称利率应当下调
华盛顿8月19日电（路透社）——美国财政部周三表示，美国国债总额首次突破40万亿美元关口，外界再次发出警告称，随着社会安全网项目和利息支出的膨胀规模远超受减税政策拖累的财政收入，一场财政危机正在酝酿。
财政部最新的每日现金与债务余额报告显示，周二美国未偿公共债务总额达40.047万亿美元，其中公众持有的国库券规模为32.266万亿美元，政府内部持有的债务规模为7.782万亿美元。
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美国联邦政府的债务如今在不到十年的时间里翻了一番多，2017年1月唐纳德·特朗普首次宣誓就职时，这一数字为19.95万亿美元。其中约三分之一的增长来自特朗普与前总统乔·拜登任内为应对新冠疫情而大举借贷的两年时间，而两位总统的财政政策选择加上长期存在的税收与收支失衡，则是剩余增长的来源。
预算监督组织数周前就已预计国债将突破这一关口，并发出严厉警告称，除非议员们直面不可持续的财政前景，提高税收、削减开支或双管齐下，否则一场全面的债务危机可能爆发。
“40万亿美元的债务并非只存在于政府账簿上；它会渗透到整个经济，最终以这样或那样的方式影响民众的钱包，”无党派组织“负责任联邦预算委员会”主席玛雅·麦奎因斯说道。
“我们借的债越多，就越会加剧通胀、挤压预算中的其他优先事项，并让我们在国内面临紧急情况、国外遭遇动荡时更加脆弱，”麦奎因斯在财政部数据公布后的一份声明中表示。
她指出，国债在不到五个月前刚达到39万亿美元，而这一数字在不到20年的时间里已经翻了两番——美国国债首次达到1万亿美元还是在1981年。
“一个全球大国的财政衰退竟如此可预测，这令人震惊，”麦奎因斯补充道。
持有美国近三分之一国债的外国投资者的需求在过去一年有所下滑，这表明全球美国债权人可能已经愈发警惕。
在一笔250年期30年期美国国债拍卖以2021年以来的最高收益率成交几天后，周二所谓的长期债券收益率达到近二十年来的最高水平，因为投资者要求为美国政府大量发行债券获得更高补偿。收益率与债券价格呈反向变动。
周三，美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特采取大胆举措试图拉低长期债券收益率，宣布将10年期至30年期美国国债的回购规模翻倍至每次至少40亿美元。
长期国债收益率上升往往会推高抵押贷款、汽车贷款和商业贷款的利率。随着国债规模丝毫没有缩减的迹象，特朗普周三再次重复了他一贯的降息诉求。
当被问及在白宫时美国人是否应该担心债券市场波动时，特朗普表示：“我一点也不这么认为。我认为我们是一个非常强大的国家，我们正在熬过这些荒谬的利率——它们太荒谬了。听着，当我们国家强大时，利率应该下调。”
疫情支出，以及更多
美国财政部上周公布了美国历史上第四高的月度财政赤字——7月为4320亿美元——原因是关税退税导致海关收入连续第三个月出现负增长，而面向老年人的社会保障和医疗保险支出持续增加。2026财年前10个月的财政赤字已经超过了2025财年全年的赤字总额，而本财年还有两个月才结束。
特朗普基本上无视了其所在共和党内部日益减少的财政鹰派人士，在两届任期内大力支持高额支出。特朗普第一任期内公共债务增长了7.8万亿美元，其中超过一半是在他任期最后九个月应对疫情期间累积的。
自特朗普2025年1月第二次就职以来，美国国债规模已经增加了3.8万亿美元，至此他两届任期内的总债务增长达到11.6万亿美元。
拜登任期内公共债务增长了8.4万亿美元，这一时期不仅有巨额的新冠疫情复苏支出，还包括其民主党政府推动的基础设施投资、清洁能源补贴等大型开支项目。
负责任联邦预算委员会估计，特朗普和拜登的政策选择使得联邦债务轨迹远超各自就职时现行支出法规下的累积规模。
例如，根据无党派联邦立法簿记机构国会预算办公室的测算，特朗普标志性的第二任期立法提案——《宏伟法案》——将再增加4.7万亿美元的债务。
特朗普将其第二任期标榜为以削减开支为核心，标志性举措包括由非政府机构“政府效率部”下令的早期联邦机构裁员。但他的大部分削减开支计划都针对所谓的“可自由支配”项目，这部分开支在联邦预算中占比最小。美国每年的支出约为7万亿美元，其中60%被指定用于所谓的“强制性”项目，包括社会保障、医疗保险、医疗补助和退伍军人护理等，这些项目通常会随着生活成本上涨而增长。
另有1.1万亿美元用于支付美国借款的利息，这一成本随着债务规模扩大和利率攀升而上升。2025财年预算标志着债务付息成本首次超过五角大楼的拨款。在2026财年前10个月，利息支出已经超过医疗保险支出，成为联邦预算中第二大开支项目，仅次于社会保障养老金体系。
美国正投入更多资金用于“婴儿潮”一代的退休和医疗保健成本，即便薪资和所得税收入不足以覆盖联邦开支，社会保障和医疗保险背后的信托基金仍面临压力。
戴维·劳德与雅各布·博亚格报道；史蒂夫·霍兰补充报道；丹·伯恩斯、保罗·西马奥与妮娅·威廉姆斯编辑
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US debt crosses $40 trillion threshold after doubling under Trump and Biden
2026-08-19 20:17:48 UTC / Reuters
Summary
- U.S. debt has risen by $11.6 trillion during Trump’s two terms in the White House
- It increased by $8.4 trillion during Biden’s four-year term
- Tax cuts have constrained revenues as social safety net, interest costs grow
- Trump not worried by bond market volatility, says interest rates should fall
WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Total U.S. debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing as ballooning costs for social safety-net programs and interest payments far outstrip revenues held back by tax cuts.
The Treasury’s latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, a total that includes Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intra-governmental debt holdings of $7.782 trillion.
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The federal government’s IOU has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump was sworn in for the first time in January 2017. Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during two years of frantic government borrowing to fund the COVID-19 pandemic responses undertaken by Trump and former President Joe Biden, while the fiscal policy choices of both presidents combined with long-running tax-and-spending imbalances account for the rest.
Budget watchdog groups have anticipated crossing the threshold for weeks and issued stark warnings that a full-blown debt crisis could erupt unless lawmakers confront an unsustainable fiscal outlook and raise taxes, cut spending or both.
“Forty trillion dollars of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
“The more we borrow, the more we exacerbate inflation, squeeze out other priorities in the budget, and leave ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad,” MacGuineas said in a statement just after the Treasury data was released.
She said the $40 trillion figure was reached less than five months after debt reached $39 trillion, and has quadrupled in less than 20 years after taking until 1981 to reach $1 trillion for the first time.
“It is staggering how predictable the fiscal decline of a global power can become,” MacGuineas added.
Global U.S. creditors may already be growing wary, with demand from foreign investors holding nearly one third of Treasuries declining over the past year.
Days after a $25-billion auction of 30-year Treasury bonds went off at the highest yield since 2021, yields on so-called long bonds on Tuesday hit their highest levels in nearly two decades as investors demanded greater compensation in the face of hefty U.S. government bond issuance. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took a bold step to push long bond yields back down, announcing a doubling of buyback sizes for 10- to 30-year Treasuries to at least $4 billion per operation.
Higher Treasury yields at the longer end tend to push up interest rates for mortgages, car and commercial loans. With the mountain of debt showing no signs of abating, Trump on Wednesday repeated his frequent demand for lower rates.
Asked at the White House whether Americans should worry about bond market volatility, Trump said: “I don’t think so at all. I think we have a very powerful country, and we’re powering through these ridiculous interest rates — they’re ridiculous. Look, when our country is strong, interest rates should go down.”
PANDEMIC SPENDING, AND THEN SOME
The Treasury last week reported the fourth-highest monthly deficit in U.S. history — $432 billion for July — as tariff refunds turned customs receipts negative for the third month in a row and outlays for Social Security and Medicare benefits for seniors continued to grow. The deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal 2026 has already exceeded the total gap for all of fiscal 2025 with two months to go in the current fiscal year.
Trump has largely ignored the dwindling number of fiscal hawks in his Republican Party, championing heavy spending across his two terms. Public debt rose by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s first term, with more than half of it accumulating during the pandemic response over his last nine months in office.
Since Trump took office a second time in January 2025, the U.S. debt load has increased by $3.8 trillion, for total growth of $11.6 trillion across his two terms so far.
Public debt increased by $8.4 trillion during Biden’s term, also marked by heavy COVID-19 recovery spending, but driven as well by big-ticket outlays for infrastructure investment, clean energy subsidies and other priorities championed by his Democratic Party.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the policy choices of Trump and Biden have increased the federal debt trajectory beyond what would have accumulated under the existing spending statutes when each took office.
For instance, Trump’s landmark second-term legislative package — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — will add another $4.7 trillion in debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan bookkeeper for federal lawmakers.
Trump has branded his second presidency as one focused on cost-cutting, marked by early federal agency job cuts ordered by the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency. But much of his spending reductions have targeted so-called “discretionary” programs, the smallest portion of the federal budget. The U.S. spends roughly $7 trillion annually, and 60% of it is earmarked for so-called “mandatory” programs, including payments for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans’ care, that generally grow to keep pace with living costs.
Another $1.1 trillion pays the interest on U.S. borrowing, the cost of which rises as the debt pile grows and as interest rates climb. The 2025 fiscal-year budget marked the first time debt service costs exceeded Pentagon funding. In the first 10 months of the 2026 fiscal year, interest costs have eclipsed Medicare healthcare outlays to become the second-largest line item in the federal budget, behind the Social Security pension system.
The U.S. is spending more to fund the retirement and healthcare costs of the “baby boom” generation, straining the trust funds behind Social Security and Medicare even as payroll and income tax revenues fall short of covering federal costs.
Reporting by David Lawder and Jacob Bogage; additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Dan Burns, Paul Simao and Nia Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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