2026年8月19日 / 美国东部时间下午4:32 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
据美国财政部周三公布的数据，美国国债已突破40万亿美元，这一财政里程碑凸显了联邦政府不断攀升的借贷规模和利息成本。
财政部每日财务报告显示，8月18日美国国债达到40.05万亿美元，较2017年增长了一倍多。联邦债务膨胀的原因在于政府支出超过了收入，迫使美国通过更多借贷来弥补赤字缺口。
“过去26年我们一直处于赤字状态，而且基本上忽视了预算中许多众所周知的结构性挑战，”无党派机构彼得·G·彼得森基金会首席执行官迈克尔·彼得森在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时表示。“这显然正在加速恶化，就像任何债务问题一样，忽视的时间越长，情况就会越糟糕。”
随着政府持续举债，利息支出在国家总开支中的占比越来越大，形成了进一步推高债务的复利效应。如今美国政府为债务支付的利息已超过国防或医疗保险的开支。
分析师表示，美国债务增长不太可能放缓。“我们正走在错误的道路上，”经济智库经济与政策研究中心联合创始人迪恩·贝克说道。他指出军费开支增加加剧了美国的财政负担。
彼得森基金会估计，如果美国不进行支出或税收改革，该国国债可能在6年内达到50万亿美元。
是什么推高了联邦债务？
2025年美国净利息成本接近1万亿美元，占全国总支出的近14%，但这只是问题的一部分。
其他多个因素也推动了国债增长，经济学家们对主要驱动因素存在不同看法。
随着美国人口老龄化，领取社会保障和医疗保险福利的人数不断增加，导致这两项计划的成本上升，而其他领域的开支也有所增加，例如利息支出。
与此同时，过去二十年的一系列减税政策降低了国家财政收入。国会预算办公室估计，去年通过的特朗普政府的“宏伟法案”将在2034财年前使美国国债增加4.2万亿美元。
彼得森在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时表示，尽管政策决策是成因之一，但债务问题不能归咎于某一届政府。
“多届政府和多届国会都采取了错误的方向，”他告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻。
正如财政部数据所示，2008年大衰退和新冠疫情等大规模经济危机也导致美国国债大幅飙升。
分析师告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，不断增长的联邦债务可能会削弱美国应对未来经济冲击的能力。
“人工智能技术颠覆、经济衰退、全球战争或其他任何一系列事件，都可能迅速将我们从挑战推向全面危机，”华盛顿智库两党政策中心主席兼首席执行官玛格丽特·斯佩林斯在一封电子邮件中说道。
联邦债务对你意味着什么？
据彼得森基金会数据，公众持有约80%的美国国债。其中超过三分之二由共同基金和联邦储备系统等国内债权人持有，其余部分由外国投资者持有。
纳税人也可能成为不断攀升的联邦债务的主要承担者：因为政府为资助支出发行更多国债时，必须提供更高的收益率来吸引投资者。这可能导致抵押贷款和其他信贷产品的利率上升。
“如果国债利率上升，意味着你的抵押贷款利率会上涨，汽车贷款利率会上涨，信用卡利率也会上涨，”彼得森说道。
高额利息支出还会使联邦政府更难筹集资金用于核心项目，彼得森将这种现象称为“挤出效应”。
“通常所说的挤出效应，是指利息成本在预算中占比过高，给预算中的其他所有项目带来下行压力，同时推高税收，因为我们需要更多资金来支付这些利息成本，”他解释道。
并非所有人都认为不断飙升的国债会对经济构成威胁。以贝克为例，他对相关后果并不那么担忧，他指出美国强劲的经济应该能够让联邦政府继续承担日益增长的财政负担。
他表示，美国当前面临的更直接的经济威胁是关税以及伊朗局势对物价的影响。他还警告称，如果所谓的人工智能泡沫破裂，投资者可能会从美国市场撤资。
“如果人们开始对美国市场和美国经济感到担忧，他们可能会撤资，”他说。“因此我认为外国资金流出美国确实存在风险，但政府债务并不是最大的影响因素，甚至可能算不上主要因素。”
编辑：艾米·皮奇
National debt tops $40 trillion after doubling in less than a decade, Treasury data shows
August 19, 2026 / 4:32 PM EDT / CBS News
The national debt topped $40 trillion, according to Treasury Department data released on Wednesday, representing a fiscal milestone that underscores the federal government’s mounting borrowing and interest costs.
The Treasury Department’s daily financial report shows that the nation’s debt reached $40.05 trillion on August 18, more than double its level in 2017. The federal debt has ballooned because government spending is outstripping revenue, forcing the U.S. to borrow more money to cover the shortfall.
“We’ve been running deficits for the last 26 years, and we’ve basically ignored a lot of the structural challenges that exist in our budget that are very well known,” Michael Peterson, CEO of the nonpartisan Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told CBS News. “It’s clearly been accelerating because, like any debt problem, the longer you ignore it, the worse it gets.”
As the government continues to borrow, interest payments are consuming a larger share of the nation’s spending, creating a compounding effect that further fuels the debt. The U.S. government now spends more on servicing its debt than on national defense or Medicare.
Analysts say the nation’s debt growth isn’t likely to slow. “We’re going the wrong way,” said Dean Baker, the co-founder of the economic think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research. He cited the increase in military spending, which he said has exacerbated the country’s fiscal burden.
The Peterson Foundation estimates that the national debt could reach $50 trillion in six years if the country does not make spending or tax reforms.
What is driving up the federal debt?
Net interest costs, which approached $1 trillion in 2025 and accounted for nearly 14% of the nation’s spending, are only part of the problem.
Several other factors have fueled the national debt, with economists holding differing opinions on the primary drivers.
The number of people collecting benefits from Social Security and Medicare has increased as the U.S. population ages, making the programs more expensive, while other spending has also increased, such as on interest payments.
At the same time, a combination of tax cuts over the last two decades has decreased the nation’s revenue. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed last year, will add $4.2 trillion to the national debt through fiscal year 2034.
While policy decisions have contributed, the debt problem can’t be tied to one specific administration, Peterson told CBS News.
“Many administrations and many Congresses have taken steps in the wrong direction,” he told CBS News.
Larger economic crises, including the Great Recession of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic, have also triggered spikes in the nation’s debt, as the Treasury Department shows.
Analysts told CBS News that the rising federal debt could hinder the country’s ability to handle future economic shocks.
“AI disruption, a recession, global war or any number of other events could quickly push us over the edge from a challenge into a full-blown crisis,” Margaret Spellings, president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said in an email.
What does the federal debt mean for you?
The public holds about 80% of the nation’s debt, according to the Peterson Foundation. Of that, more than two-thirds is held by domestic lenders such as mutual funds and the Federal Reserve System, while foreign investors hold the rest.
Taxpayers could also bear the brunt of rising federal debt because as the government issues more Treasury securities to fund government spending, it must offer higher yields to attract investors. That could contribute to higher interest rates for mortgages and other credit products.
“If the Treasury rate is going up, that means your mortgage rate is going up, your car loan is going up, your credit card rates are going up,” Peterson said.
Higher interest payments can also make it more difficult for the federal government to find the money to fund core programs, a phenomenon Peterson referred to as “crowding out.”
“It’s typically called crowding out when the interest costs represent such a big chunk of the budget that it puts downward pressure on every other program across the budget, and puts upward pressure on taxes because you know we need more money in the system to cover these interest costs,” he said.
Not everyone agrees that the nation’s soaring debt could pose an economic threat. Baker, for one, is less concerned about the consequences, noting that a strong U.S. economy should allow the federal government to continue to shoulder the growing financial burden.
The more immediate economic threats facing the U.S. are tariffs and the Iran war’s impact on prices, he said. He also warned that investors could pull their money out of the U.S. if what some believe is an artificial intelligence bubble were to burst.
“If people just become wary of U.S. markets and the U.S. economy, they might pull their money out,” he said. “So I think there is an issue with foreign money leaving the U.S. but the government debt isn’t the biggest factor, and probably not even a major factor.”
Edited by Aimee Picchi